What does the China 'spy' row show? That Starmer can't just muddle through on foreign policy | Rafael Behr

Chinese businessman banned from UK on grounds of espionage.

Yang Tengbo says he is the casualty of sour’ anti- China sentiment.

Case has elevated anxiety about the scale of Beijing ’s covert influence operations in the UK .

Head of MI5 warned that the Chinese state was running a “sustained campaign on a pretty epic scale” to infiltrate British businesses.

British politics is so parochial and crowded with trivia that Starmer didn’t need a meaningful foreign policy for his election campaign.

There may be a safe zone where Britain can have lucrative economic ties to China without compromising national security.

But the balance has never been easy. It is made a lot harder by a shortage of stabilising alliances elsewhere.