Britain could become even more dependent on China, warns Sir Iain Duncan Smith 

The Government’s goal for a carbon neutral UK by 2050 risks Britain becoming even more dependent on China, Sir Iain Duncan Smith warned last night.

The Tory grandee and backbencher warned that a push for electric vehicles risks driving vast public sector contracts for electric buses and car batteries to Chinese firms which have ‘already won the battery race’.

He said: ‘China has made itself the world’s largest producer of batteries and their special charging systems.

‘The pressure to go electric in the UK, in haste, means we are queuing up to strike deals with these vast Chinese firms.’

Instead, Sir Iain will urge Ministers to pursue alternative clean energy sources like hydrogen technology. ‘With the Government about to open our 5G network to Huawei, I doubt this threat has been considered as well,’ he added.

Separately, The Mail on Sunday has learnt the Covid-19 issue was not discussed at a meeting of the National Security Council that gave Huawei the green light in January – despite intelligence reports warning China was being misleading about the virus.

Ministers are also planning to urge Boris Johnson to use Britain’s hosting of the G7 group of nations in London for a ‘very big international conversation about China’s behaviour’.

‘This pandemic has taught us that we must never again make ourselves so dependent on such a rule-breaking regime as China’ writes SIR IAIN DUNCAN SMITH for The Mail On Sunday 

By Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP

This Covid-19 scourge, with its roots in China’s repulsive live animal food markets and possibly a biological laboratory, has been a disaster for the whole world.

China’s suppression of information at the start of the outbreak and subsequent misinformation of Covid-19’s real scale at last highlights the extent of the UK’s dependence on China.

The UK’s drift into over-dependence on China for so many of the products and systems which run our lives is now shown to be a disaster. 

China’s utter dominance of the computer and mobile phone market where, from microprocessors to lap tops and from mobile phones to antennae, China now dominates the global market. Worse, the government will add to this dominance by including Huawei in our new 5G system.

This dominance is because the totalitarian government of China has implemented strategic plans to secure these markets for China, one by one. Of course, this has been made easier by our complacency, our rush for cheaper and cheaper products and the absence of a government strategic view about crucial areas of production.

Chinese businesses do not act independently but according to a central plan, more often fully supported by the central Bank of China; a plan into which western countries have raced, with the results too evident now.

Bad as that is, we are about to make it much worse after this pandemic is over.

The government has a plan for the UK to be carbon neutral by 2050. However I am concerned that in the rush to achieve the carbon neutral target, the UK may be about to make a major error, as was the case in the panicky rush to diesel.

This is because China has already won the battery race. China has made itself the world’s largest producer of batteries and their special charging systems. The pressure to go electric in the UK, in haste, means central and local government are all queuing up to strike deals with these vast Chinese battery companies – giving China billions of pounds and increasing our dependency.

Once installed, these batteries pose a security risk. Senior industry experts say batteries can contain a ‘backdoor’ which means the producer is able to immobilise thousands at a time with the touch of a button. With the Government about to open our 5G network to Huawei, I doubt this threat has been considered.

Furthermore, batteries need rare earth metals to function. These are critical to a range of applications, including in smart phones, computers, LEDs, catalytic convertors, electricity generation & storage and batteries for electric vehicles. They are also essential in several defence applications, including radar, the guidance systems of missiles and laser rangefinders.

Interestingly, it turns out that China now controls approximately 95% of the world’s current supply of rare earth metals and it also controls the majority of the global processing capacity – what a surprise. Worse, an Amnesty International study showed as many as 35,000 children could be involved in the mining of rare earth materials for batteries in unstable countries such as the Congo.

Then there is the question of what we do with these billions of batteries from China when they come to the end of their life. Currently, recycling rates in Europe and the US are less than 5%. This because scientists and engineers haven’t yet worked out if and how to do more. We have over 37million cars on the road in the UK, if all these are to become electric then this will lead to a vast amount of dangerous materials needed to be ploughed into landfills.

Even knowing all that, the UK Government is still enthusiastic about batteries. I understand the Department for Transport is running an ‘All-Electric Bus Town’ plan that will see £50m of taxpayer’s money go to converting an entire town’s bus fleet – all these buses will use batteries made in China.

Yet it’s not as though there is no alternative. As we leave the EU we are fortunate to find ourselves in the position of being a world leader in the production of hydrogen and the hydrogen fuel cell to both power vehicles and generate electricity. 

Hydrogen is an incredibly clean source of power and doesn’t require land fill once used up. The UK is already the most advanced in its research and testing of hydrogen’s potential. We are home to world leading businesses, such as Wrightbus in Northern Ireland, that is already making the world’s-first double decker hydrogen buses and Worcester Bosch’s ground-breaking hydrogen technology.

That’s why instead of going cap in hand to China yet again, we need a strategic plan to ensure that we support an area where we have a world lead and offers the solution to the UK’s carbon neutral ambition. 

By backing the UK’s hydrogen sector we could create hundreds of thousands of high-skilled jobs in places away from London and the South East, places like the Tees Valley where half of the UK’s hydrogen is already made.

Now is the time to strategically position the UK as true world leader in new forms of low carbon technology. 

By increasing UK innovation, energy security and creating British jobs that benefit parts of the country away from London we will reinvigorate the UK.

Surely after what British people have suffered due to this pandemic, we owe it to them to end our dependence on China. We must learn the lesson that this pandemic has taught us and act so that never again will we make ourselves so dependent on such an undemocratic, rule-breaking regime as China.