On Wednesday 12th June the Council on Geostrategy was delighted to announce the launch of its new research project, the China Observatory, with support from leading China experts and legislators, including Alicia Kearns, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee (2022-2024).
This new non-partisan initiative seeking to monitor the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) activities and guide HM Government in the formulation of a coherent ‘China policy’. The Observatory will watch, monitor and evaluate the CCP’s evolution, behaviour and actions, through research-led, analysis from a British vantage point.
I strongly welcome the Council on Geostrategy launching a new China Observatory, adding a new trusted and expert voice to the UK’s discussion on, and understanding of, China and the CCP. Whilst the Council on Geostrategy has already contributed valuable, detailed analysis on China in its research and publications, the new Observatory will build on this, offering an important counterpoint within the analytical community.
Alicia Kearns, Chair of the Advisory Board, China Observatory
I am looking forward to working closely with the Observatory in my role as its Chair as it helps inform and shape China policy in the UK.
The Council on Geostrategy’s China Observatory will be a potent source for British legislators and officials, shining a light on the CCP and its manoeuvres, particularly when it attempts to obstruct or realign British and global interests to serve its ambitions. Led by an Advisory Council made up of Alicia Kearns, Stephen Gethins, former diplomat Charles Parton OBE, and prominent China experts Isabel Hilton OBE and George Magnus, the Observatory seeks to provide a platform for understanding what the rise of the PRC means for the UK in the 21st century.
We are all aware that China is not the same country that it was just a decade or two ago. Many of us have faced difficulty in understanding and keeping up with the changes that are taking place so rapidly and at the very core of the Chinese Communist Party. These changes affect the geopolitical, geoeconomical, technological landscape, UK-China bilateral relations and the free and open international world order.
Neither the politicians nor the public of our country can afford to be headline-educated – this gives way to blind optimism or fear-mongering. This is where the Council on Geostrategy comes in. Since our launch in 2021, we have played a key role advising British legislators and officials in their PRC strategy – our experts contributed to HM Government’s Integrated Review of 2023.
Grace Theodoulou, Policy Fellow, China Observatory