ESPIONAGE by China presents a “challenge” to both the UK’s national security and its values, Secretary of State for Science Michelle Donelan has said.

She told GB News: “China presents a challenge both to our national security but also to our values and so our approach therefore, needs to be one of engagement, but also one of robustness and that’s certainly the approach that we’ve been taking.

“I think what we’re saying is that we can’t just be naive, we can’t put our head in the sand and wish China away. They are the second largest economy. They have a fifth of the world’s entire population.

“And when it comes to climate change, they’re the biggest producer, an emitter of carbon dioxide. So we do have to take China seriously. And that’s the approach that we’ve been taking.”

In a discussion during Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster, she continued: “So, for instance, we’ve stripped out Huawei in the 5G network, we banned TikTok on government devices.

“We’ve established a procurement bill which helps us here, we’ve had a National Security Act, which gives us more control of our industry.

“We’ve cracked down on Chinese investment in our nuclear sector and our semiconductors. We didn’t meet with China at a top level for many years from 2018, I believe it is, until last week. We’re in line with our Five Eyes [partners] if not more forthright in our approach.”

She added: “It would be very naive to just pretend that China didn’t exist and it wouldn’t be in the interest of British industry, British jobs, tackling climate change.”