Cameron’s China Links Prompt Call for Rule Change

China's leader Xi Jinping (L) and then Prime Minister David Cameron drink a pint of beer during a state visit to the UK at a pub in Princess Risborough near Chequers, northwest of London, on Oct. 22, 2015. Kirsty Wigglesworth/WPA Pool/Getty Images

Rules need to be tightened so ministers and civil servants can’t “go off and help China” after leaving their government jobs, a former diplomat said in light of David Cameron’s return to the government as foreign secretary.

Mr. Cameron, a former prime minister, who is no longer an MP, made the surprise political comeback on Monday in a Cabinet reshuffle by becoming Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton in the House of Lords.

Among other political baggages such as the Greensill lobbying scandal and his resignation over the Brexit vote, Lord Cameron’s return has raised eyebrows amid critics of the Chinese regime as he had heralded the so-called golden era of Sino-British relations while in No. 10.

After leaving Downing Street in 2016, he also served as the vice president of $1 billion China–UK investment fund which never took off since the relationship between London and Beijing soured.

Warning about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) targeting of current and former officials, a recent report published by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament said “it is possible” that the appointment of Lord Cameron was “in some part engineered by the Chinese state to lend credibility to Chinese investment, as well as to the broader China brand.”

While the new foreign secretary declared on Monday that he had given up all other jobs, there are calls for him to disclose all his past business interests since his company, the Office of David Cameron, was converted to an unlimited private company in April 2020, meaning it no longer has to disclose its income.

The last financial statement filed by the Office of David Cameron in 2019 show the company earned £836,168 in profit in the previous financial year.

ACOBA Rules

Charles Parton, a former diplomat and associate fellow of think tanks the Council on Geostrategy and the Royal United Services Institute, also said the government should strengthen the watchdog that signs off on what former ministers can do, so Lord Cameron or other ministers can avoid helping the CCP in the future or having their ministerial decisions influenced by their prospective careers.

The new foreign secretary won’t stay in the post for too long “in all likelihood” as a general election is on the horizon, “and therefore, you have to think of what he’s going to do afterwards and if he’s going to go back to the same sort of business as he’s been working on in the last few years,” he told The Epoch Times.

“And in the context of British politics and Chinese interference in British politics, that raises to me the question of the need to strengthen the powers of ACOBA, which is the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments,” he said.

Under ACOBA rules, ministers have to get approval for any jobs they wish to take in the first two years after they leave government.

“The worry is that in the last years of ministers’ work or civil servants’ work, if they’re worried about ... how they’re going to be employed afterwards, will they please potential employers, whether it’s China, a company, a defence manufacturer, or whatever it is, will that influence the way they make decisions and statements while they’re still in office?” he said.

“If [Prime Minister] Rishi Sunak and he [Lord Cameron] are to convince us that the moment he stops work, he’s not going to go off and help China in the ways that he’s helped recently in the last few years, than they need to show that by strengthening the rules of ACOBA, which would then apply to David Cameron and others when they leave.

“And this needs doing anyway because of China’s interference in our country,” he said.

Mr. Parton also said he agrees with calls for the foreign secretary to disclose his past financial interests because it’s “the best thing” for him to do “if he wishes to engender more trust and prevent attacks on himself by others.”

Rishi Sunak delivers a speech on artificial intelligence in London on Oct. 26, 2023. Peter Nicholls/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

In a letter greenlighting Lord Cameron’s then-new role of forming the UK–China investment fund in 2017, ACOBA said it was told the fund would “promote economic development and relations between the UK and China,” and that the Cabinet Office was supportive of the fund and Mr. Cameron’s role in it.

Cameron ‘Unfit’ To Be Minister

The appointment of Lord Cameron to a government accused of lacking a coherent China policy has sparked nervousness and indignation amid the circle of CCP critics and opposition parties.

Upon re-joining the Cabinet on Monday, the foreign secretary said, “Today I resign from all of those things, from all of the businesses I have been helping. The other things I’ve been doing, including being a professor at NYU [New York University], that all stops.”

But Lord Cameron has not disclosed what jobs he had left, raising questions about his financial interests, including any links with China.

On Wednesday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer questioned when the prime minister will “instruct the foreign secretary to give full public disclosure of his work for Chinese interests.”

Handout photo issued by UK Parliament of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer speaking during 'Prime Minister's Questions' in the House of Commons, London, on Nov. 15, 2023. Jessica Taylor/UK Parliament via PA

Dominic Cummings, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s disgruntled ex-chief advisor who has been a vocal critic of the government since his departure from No. 10, called Lord Cameron “a clear security risk at the v[ery] least in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Roger Garside, adviser to China Journal of Democracy and author of “China Coup: the Great Leap to Freedom,” said Lord Cameron shouldn’t be brought back to the Cabinet given his record on China.

By creating the so-called golden era, the former prime minister and his chancellor George Osborne “sacrificed Britain’s reputation as a nation that defended the principles of human rights incorporated in the U.N. Charter in order to increase Chinese trade and investment in the UK. This was utterly shameful,” Mr. Garside said in an email to The Epoch Times.

“After being forced to resign as prime minister, Cameron tried to cash in on the favour he believed that he had bought in the eyes of the Chinese communists by working to set up a $1 billion UK-China investment fund aimed at supporting Xi’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative.”

Mr. Garside said Lord Cameron’s record on China “makes him unfit to become a minister of the crown, especially foreign secretary.”

After Lord Cameron appointment, CCP mouthpiece China Daily published an article saying his return “rekindles memory of ‘golden era’ for ties.”

The article said Lord Cameron has “worked on the Belt and Road project and visited China several times” in the past seven years, and expressed hopes that new foreign secretary would lend momentum to “constructive engagement between China and the UK.”

However, Mr. Garside said he believes there’s “little or no prospect of this government attempting a return” to the “Golden Era” because the communist regime’s  international reputation has “suffered too many heavy, self-inflicted blows, not least its cover-up of the origins of Covid-19.”

‘Deeply Concerning’ Baggage

Benedict Rogers, co-founder and chief executive of Hong Kong Watch, which is also sanctioned by the CCP said while he understands why Mr. Sunak may want to appoint someone with global experience and not worried about re-election amid a number of international crises, “the baggage that David Cameron brings with regard to China policy is deeply concerning.”

“Under his government, the UK was totally silent on human rights issues in China,” the human rights advocate said.

Benedict Rogers, a UK human rights activist, speaks at a rally commemorating the 20th anniversary of the persecution of Falun Gong in China, on the West lawn of Capitol Hill in Washington on July 18, 2019. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

“And then, of course, after he left office, he, in a private capacity took up a role with the Belt and Road Initiative. So that’s very troubling.”

Mr. Rogers said he’s been concerned for a long time about the government’s “soft pedalling” on China.

While the move is “in a sense ... in keeping with the direction that the U.S. and the Australian administrations have been taking in recent months” and it’s necessary to prevent a war with China over Taiwan, “I am concerned that there’s also a tendency to want to revive the business relationship. And I think we'll just have to watch what David Cameron does and watch it very closely,” he said.

The Epoch Times has reached out to No. 10 Downing Street and the Foreign Office for comments.