Call for Evidence

The Committee welcomes written evidence that responds to one or more of the following questions:  

Audit process and immediate outcomes:  

• What evidence base should the Government have drawn upon when conducting the China Audit?  

• What would the most useful output be from the Audit, such as a public strategy or a risk assessment framework? 

• What metrics should be used to measure the Audit’s implementation and overall success?  

• What are the merits for the Government in publishing an unclassified China strategy? What would the implications be of publishing a strategy?  

• What roles should the FCDO’s Arm’s Length Bodies play in implementing the FCDO’s China strategy and the outcomes of the Audit?  And what roles sit in other parts of Government (e.g. other Government departments or agencies)? 

Long-term implementation of the Audit and wider China policy: 

• How should the Government consider and assess trade-offs in the UK-China relationship? For example, how should the Government seek to balance its growth agenda and environmental goals vs. security and human rights concerns in China?  

• What should the Government’s objectives be for the UK-China relationship in the short term and the long term?  

• In which areas can, and should, the Government engage with China? Where should the Government draw red lines? 

• How effective is the Government’s current ‘Challenge, Compete, Cooperate’ strategy towards China? What are the gaps and limits of this?  

• How should the Government assess UK dependencies on China? Where should the Government focus its efforts on strengthening UK security and resilience?  

• How might greater UK engagement with China affect other UK alliances?  

• Does the FCDO, as well as other Government departments and agencies, have sufficient expertise and resources to manage the multifaceted UK-China relationship?  

• Where should the Government focus its efforts when strengthening ‘China capabilities’?  

• How effective is cross-Government coordination on China?  

• How should the Government ensure coherence and consistency across departments, as well as in the public sector, academia and the private sector?  

Each submission should be no longer than 3,000 words and contain a brief introduction about the author. Submissions should be in malleable format such as MS Word (not PDFs) with no use of colour, logos or photos. Further guidance is available on our Written Evidence Guidance.    

Deadline for submissions

The deadline for written submissions is 23:59pm on 5th May 2025. Written evidence may be submitted on the basis of anonymity (meaning that it will be published, but without your name), or in confidence (meaning that it won't be published at all). If you would like to submit evidence anonymously or in confidence, you will be able to select this option during the submission process. Please also state at the beginning of your evidence which of these you want to request, and tell us why.

For further guidance, you can contact fac@parliament.uk.

It is recommended that all submitters familiarise themselves with the Guidance on giving evidence to a Select Committee of the House of Commons which outlines particulars of word count, format, document size, and content restrictions.

Diversity

We encourage members of underrepresented groups to submit written evidence. We aim to have diverse panels of Select Committee witnesses and ask organisations to bear this in mind when we ask them to choose a representative. We are currently monitoring the diversity of our witnesses.