Tom Tugendhat - The Sinister War China Is Waging Against the West

Dec 16, 2025

Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative MP and former Security Minister, warns about China's rising threat to the West. He discusses the dangers of economic espionage and the infiltration of British universities by the Chinese Communist Party. Tugendhat highlights the UK's risky dependency on Chinese supply chains and infrastructure. He also addresses the implications of a proposed Chinese super-embassy and the need for reforms to protect national security. The conversation delves into the balance between pragmatism and ideology in UK policy towards China.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

China As A Systemic Threat

Tom Tugendhat argues China poses a real, non-military threat to Britain through economic and systemic means.
He emphasizes the need to act now to protect national interests rather than debate labels like "enemy."

ANECDOTE

Turbine Company Hacked And Undercut

Tom recounts a UK turbine firm hacked and undercut by a Chinese company six months later.
He uses this to show how economic espionage destroys UK jobs and investment incentives.

INSIGHT

China Wants To Reorder The Global System

Tugendhat explains China aims to rewrite global rules to favor Beijing and create a unipolar order.
He warns this differs qualitatively from threats like Russia because it seeks systemic reordering.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Former Security Minister and Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat joins The Winston Marshall Show for a stark warning about China’s growing threat to Britain and the West’s failure to confront it.

Tugendhat explains why China is not just an economic competitor but a systemic challenger attempting to reorder the global system around Beijing. From economic espionage and intellectual property theft to the infiltration of British universities and critical infrastructure, he lays out how the Chinese Communist Party is exploiting Western openness to hollow out our future.

They discuss the proposed Chinese “super embassy” next to the Tower of London, the intimidation of dissidents on British soil, and why Chinese law obliges all companies and citizens to cooperate with state intelligence. Tugendhat also exposes Britain’s dangerous dependency on Chinese supply chains, rare earths, technology and manufacturing, and why this poses a direct threat to jobs, free speech and national security.

The conversation widens to foreign ownership of British infrastructure, the failures of past governments, and how decades of economic mismanagement have left the UK vulnerable to hostile powers.

All this China Britain relations economic espionage national security Chinese influence academia infrastructure dependency and the uncomfortable question of whether Britain is prepared to defend itself in a changing world.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WATCH FULL EXTEND CONVERSATION HERE: https://open.substack.com/pub/winstonmarshall/p/the-sinister-war-china-is-waging?r=18lfab&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

Substack: https://www.winstonmarshall.co.uk/

X: https://twitter.com/mrwinmarshall

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/winstonmarshall

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/winstonmarshall

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapters

0:00 Introductions

4:15 China's Influence in British Academia and Technological Transfer

8:32 Impact of China on Everyday British Lives

12:45 Trade and Chinese Ownership of British Infrastructure

42:56 Chinese Espionage and the United Front

59:31 The Spy Scandal and the National Security Act

1:07:22 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.