New front in emerging Cold War with China just opened up in Scotland

Edinburgh Council’s decision to rethink plans to sign a “friendship arrangement” with a city in Taiwan – following warnings of a backlash by China’s communist regime, which claims the island is part of its territory – is the latest sign of the growing Cold War between the world’s democracies and its dictatorships.

The Chinese Consul General is said to have warned of “dire consequences” if the deal with Kaohsiung went ahead with reports that Beijing might block visas for Chinese students at universities in Edinburgh and Scotland as a whole. One Edinburgh business said Chinese sanctions were “simply far too big a risk to take”.

The deal, due to be discussed at a council meeting on Thursday, has now been delayed for “more discussion” but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that China’s profoundly authoritarian government is bullying us into submission using their economic power. To do so over a friendship agreement designed to promote trade suggests it may be willing to exercise its clout in other ways too.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands during a meeting in Beijing in October (Picture: Sergei Guneyev/pool/AFP via Getty Images)

But then we already have evidence of that. Last month, we reported claims that China was using a scholarship scheme – paid for by Scottish taxpayers – to monitor and intimidate critics of the communist government. Chinese officials also notoriously beat up a Hong Kong democracy campaigner after dragging him into a consulate in Manchester.

In recent years, many in the West have spoken about the need to ‘decouple’ from China – to steadily disentangle our economies from the regime’s tentacles – as the threats aimed at Taiwan, a de facto independent democracy, have grown. Others have argued for a less dramatic approach called ‘derisking’. It’s the kind of conversation the West should have had about Vladimir Putin's Russia long before he launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

UK must get tough with China over its sinister interest in our democracy

China is sending out many clues that it plans to attack Taiwan, including a massive military exercise simulating an invasion just a few weeks ago. If that happens, our universities and economy at large cannot be so reliant on Chinese money that we are either unable to stand up for our own values or thrown into an economic crisis if we do.