If China’s border force is suddenly able to stop the supply of components fuelling illegal migration to the UK, it follows that they were not stopping it before.
Question is: why not?
Some argue that these are just private companies, selling stuff. What’s the problem? An identical argument is deployed to defend the sale of dual use goods from “private” Chinese companies to Russia, btw.
Another way of seeing it is that Beijing is engaged in a whole-of-state assault on the west, seeking to sow chaos, weakening institutions, heightening divisions. Algorithmic manipulation of Chinese owned social media (eg TikTok 
) is often used as an example of this, especially as it applies to campus, with students so drip-fed on curated content, and so riled up, that they become angry intellectual zombies.
Those who think China doesn’t do stuff like this should read up about Beijing’s hybrid threats. Decent primer at this link (spoiler: we are barely on the field): hcss.nl/report/respond and realise that the intelligence community in Europe is shit-scared of it. See this report on FIMI (Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference): epc.eu/publication/Hy
So if 60% of small boats parts are coming from China, a state of unparalleled economic control where the private sector is being fused into the military, where exports don’t happen by accident, and where the state is engaged in efforts to destabilise the west, it is plausible that that China’s facilitation of small boat crossings is not a mistake. Bookmark this tweet.
A hawkish take on China’s whole-of-state assault on the west: warroom.armywarcollege.edu/articles/allfa
) is often used as an example of this, especially as it applies to campus, with students so drip-fed on curated content, and so riled up, that they become angry intellectual zombies.
Those who think China doesn’t do stuff like this should read up about Beijing’s hybrid threats. Decent primer at this link (spoiler: we are barely on the field): hcss.nl/report/respond and realise that the intelligence community in Europe is shit-scared of it. See this report on FIMI (Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference): epc.eu/publication/Hy
So if 60% of small boats parts are coming from China, a state of unparalleled economic control where the private sector is being fused into the military, where exports don’t happen by accident, and where the state is engaged in efforts to destabilise the west, it is plausible that that China’s facilitation of small boat crossings is not a mistake. Bookmark this tweet.
A hawkish take on China’s whole-of-state assault on the west: warroom.armywarcollege.edu/articles/allfaQuote
The i Paper
@theipaper
UK to strike small boats deal with China to disrupt Channel crossings trib.al/JbU6ruN
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