President Xi was said to have lauded the work of the 48 Group Club at a meetingA powerful body of business and political figures dedicated to stronger ties with China is taking legal action over a book which claims that President Xi’s government is grooming Britain’s elites. The 48 Group Club, of which the former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine is a founding patron, took down its website after Hidden Hand, an exposé of Chinese influence networks, was published. The friendship medal is awarded to foreigners who have helped China ALAMYStephen Perry, a London businessman who chairs the 48 Group Club, has begun legal action to stop the publication of the book in the UK and Canada, according to its co-author, the Australian academic Clive Hamilton. The book, released in Australia last week, portrays Beijing’s influence in Britain through the Chinese Communist Party as far reaching and unstoppable. It says that

Source: The Times June 29, 2020 23:03 UTC