Mr Parkinson said the CPS had tried “over many months” to gather material from ministers, but it had not been forthcoming. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, wrote in the Times on Thursday, saying the suggestion the previous government did not publicly categorise China as a threat to national security was “totally untrue”. “I have spoken to colleagues who served as relevant ministers then and they have told me these documents exist. “They are also, of course, an important trading partner, and also they’re somebody that we need to work with on things like climate change. “But where there are national security threats, we need to take them immensely seriously and respond to them, and we continue to do that.”
