UK claims to know more about China arms sales than its own
- London warns Beijing is planning ‘lethal aid’ for Russia in the Ukraine war, but says it has no idea how many weapons it has sold to Israel
The British government knows more about Chinese military aid than its own. That seems to be the case judging by the statements of two senior British officials. Perhaps UK spies are geniuses while the bureaucrats are utter incompetents; who knows? Or is it the other way around because the bureaucrats have something to hide?
Speaking at a defence conference in London this week, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps claimed he had evidence that China was planning to provide Russia with “lethal aid” to use in its war in Ukraine.
“Lethal aid is now, or will be, flowing from China to Russia and into Ukraine … [in] a significant development,” he reportedly said.
So, now or later? And what evidence does he have? As is usual with this kind of Western allegation, none is forthcoming. Trust us, we never lie.
In any case, it seems the defence chief is fairly certain that China is up to no good in Ukraine. The same sense of certainty eluded Alan Mak, the minister for industry and economic security.
Mak was in a bit of a pickle before a parliamentary committee on business and trade on Tuesday. The topic of the day was “UK arms exports to Israel”, and Mak could not provide precise figures beyond what Foreign Minister David Cameron told lawmakers earlier, which was supposedly very little.
The issue is of some pressing concern because Britain, along with the United States, Canada, Germany and Italy, have been providing arms to Israel. Now that accusations of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity have been levelled at Israel’s top leadership, its Western allies are worried about their own potential complicity under international law. Well, maybe not the US.
No fewer than three former British supreme court justices were among 600 British lawyers and legal scholars who co-signed a letter to their prime minister warning of British complicity in Gaza and calling for an end to the arms sales.
The letter concludes: “Failure to comply with its own obligations under the Genocide Convention to take ‘all measures to prevent genocide which were within its power’ would incur UK state responsibility for the commission of an international wrong, for which full reparation must be made.
“Serious action is moreover needed to avoid UK complicity in grave breaches of international law, including potential violations of the Genocide Convention.”
To be fair, Mak did manage to give a precise figure. “£42 million [HK$417 million] … less than 1 per cent of Israel’s defence imports,” he told the committee.
That sounded OK. Unfortunately, that was the figure for 2022. What the committee was really asking was British arms exports to Israel since last year, but especially the past eight months with its scorched-earth war in Gaza.
That ought to be available because, as one committee member pointed out, “these are quarterly statistics”.
In what was perhaps the British official equivalent of “the dog ate my homework”, Mak said: “We are updating our digital systems.” That was why, presumably, no data was available for 2023-24 for the committee.
The data seems to be conveniently missing. Mak’s non-testimony came after the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) applied for arrest warrants for the top leaders of Israel and Hamas for war crimes and crimes against humanity over Gaza.
In light of the latest development, the data the parliamentary committee was asking about would be of some urgent concern to the government as well – even if the computer network was being upgraded.
By contrast, UK officials probably know exactly what and how many weapons have been sold to Israel for the war in Gaza. Now, though, they are running for cover because the ICC and the International Court of Justice are on the case.
