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China using its billions to buy political influence across the world
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Top Stories |
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SME Times News Bureau | 14 Jan, 2022
Allegations that a suspected Chinese spy has donated more than 500,000
pounds to a senior Labour MP in Britain appear to fit part and parcel
with Beijings modus operandi -- using its billions in cash to buy
political influence across the planet, the Daily Mail reported.
Barry
Gardiner, who was a member of Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet, received
the donations from Christine Ching Kui Lee -- mainly to cover staffing
costs in his office -- over a period of six years, and employed her son
as his diary manager.
MI5 took the rare step of issuing MPs and
peers with a warning on Friday about Lee's cultivating of British
politicians to secure a ‘UK political landscape' that is ‘favourable' to
China's authoritarian government, the report said.
In recent
years, Beijing's ‘ruthless' bid for world power has seen the Communist
Party make more aggressive interventions in the internal affairs of
smaller -- and often poorer -- sovereign states in Latin America and the
Caribbean.
China last month struck deals with a string of
countries across Latin America to build up ‘civilian' nuclear
technology, develop space programmes and build 5G mobile networks, which
the US says could be used to spy on millions of people, the report
added.
Beijing has even pledged to build schools and fund classes
teaching Chinese language and ‘culture', though such institutions have
been criticised elsewhere for pushing state propaganda and limiting
academic freedom.
According to Mateo Haydar, a researcher at the
Heritage Foundation, China has ambitions to become ‘the dominant
influence in Latin America', the report said.
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