Britain’s spy chief on Thursday said that China is now the top intelligence priority for the Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, surpassing counterterrorism.
“We are putting more effort into China. We now devote more effort to China than any other single subject,” Secret Intelligence Service Chief Richard Moore said when addressing the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.
“It reflects the seriousness of the mission for us,” Moore added.
Photo: AP
Understanding how Beijing pursues its strategic goals was a particularly complex challenge, Moore said.
He said that it was still a “pretty opaque system” when seeking to engage with China “in a position of strength,” whether that is in trade or seeking some common ground on climate change.
It is actually quite easy to understand the strategic intent of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), as Beijing’s economic policy of “Made in China 2025” lays out the Chinese ambition and desire to dominate key technologies, he added.
“If you go beneath that strategy in terms of how they implement, how they organize, what their tactical intent is, and then what are the capabilities they’re building up — that’s a black box,” Moore said.
“And there’s a role for organizations like mine in helping British ministers and policymakers to understand that, so they can navigate this really complex, difficult relationship with the Chinese,” he said.
A military conflict between China and the West over Taiwan is “not inevitable” if the West sends a clear message to Beijing that there would be dire consequences if it invaded Taiwan, Moore said.
“It’s important that President Xi, as he calculates what he may or may not do with Taiwan, looks at what can go wrong with a misjudged invasion,” he said.
“Clearly we need to find ways of messaging with clarity and getting the sort of deterrence in place that’s necessary to avoid that kind of miscalculation,” he added.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
RSS