Live news: China’s interests “not well served” by adapting to Russia, says GCHQ
China’s global interests are “not well served” by aligning with Russia, said the head of Britain’s intelligence, cyber and security bureau, as it would “limit” the country’s global role and undermine its stated belief in territorial integrity and long-standing claims to Taiwan. .
Jeremy Fleming, head of Britain’s signal intelligence agency GCHQ, said: “We know that both Presidents Xi and Putin place great value on their personal relations… But there are risks for both of them, and more for China, by being too closely connected. “
The risk for Beijing, Fleming said, is that they “want to set … the standards for a new global governance” but Russia is a regime “that deliberately and illegally ignores them all” even though China has “the eye to retake Taiwan”.
The risk for Moscow, Fleming said, is that “Russia understands that in the long run China will become increasingly militarily and economically[and when]. . . their conflict of interest, Russia can be squeezed out ”.
Fleming’s comments came a day after China said it had reaffirmed its partnership with Russia and said it wanted to push bilateral relations “to a higher level”.
His comments were delivered at a lecture at the Australian National University in Canberra. Australia is a member of the Five Eyes Intelligence Sharing Network, which also includes the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and New Zealand.
Fleming said Putin had underestimated the determination of Western and Ukraine and criticized Russia’s military capability in comments that portrayed Moscow as a lost bet.
“We have seen Russian soldiers – who lack weapons and morals – refuse to carry out orders, sabotage their own equipment and even accidentally shoot down their own aircraft,” he said.