One of the biggest \u201choles\u201d visited by Knowles, for instance, is the project at Royal Albert Dock, where Chinese involvement has created \u201cLondon\u2019s most beautiful ghost town\u201d. Since 2012, the original developer \u2013 Advanced Business Park (ABP), a Beijing-based construction firm \u2013 has shared offices in China with London and Partners, a \u201cgrowth agency\u201d set up by Boris Johnson, the former prime minister, using British taxpayers\u2019 money, to attract foreign investment. The following year, 2013, Johnson announced the Albert Dock project to great fanfare: it would be a mixture of commercial, retail and living space, plus a \u201cChinese Business Park\u201d to provide a foothold for Chinese companies in London.<\/p>\n
Where Uneasy Streets truly stands out, though, is on the human level. It has a fascinating cast of characters, not least the Chinese migrants to the UK, all of different generations and backgrounds, whom Knowles interviews. Some are taking advantage of being in a democratic country to engage in civil society and politics, which they could never do at home in China: it would be considered \u201cterrorism\u201d or \u201csubversion\u201d. Others are seeking a better future for themselves, an opportunity to cast off the shackles of family expectations. And the motives of the remaining few seem less clear.<\/p>\n
So we meet Yijiao, in her late 20s, who organises film screenings in London after finishing a Master\u2019s degree at King\u2019s College. She tells Knowles about the difficulty of working out what to show: China-approved propaganda films will appeal to Chinese students in the UK, but works that would be censored by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), such as those made by Uyghur filmmakers, will attract a more international crowd. Yijiao is defiant, and ambitious to chart her own course in life: \u201cChinese women today are different [from their mothers]\u2026 Why would we be the traditional [wives], and cook and look after the kids?\u201d<\/p>\n
On the other hand, we meet Ali, a long-time UK resident originally from Beijing. She works as the director of a Confucius Institute; these are notionally language and community centres, typically attached to British universities, but they\u2019ve been accused of being fronts for the CCP. Without being asked, Ali defends the network of Institutes against such accusations, and insists that media reports of \u201cspying\u201d on campuses are untrue \u2013 though Knowles points out that in 2022, MI5 reported that 50 Chinese students with links to the Chinese military had been \u201cremoved from the UK, and that fears of spying persist\u201d.<\/p>\n
Chinese \u2018police stations\u2019 in the UK<\/p>\n
Even though the Chinese diaspora shares a culture \u2013 and to some extent, a language \u2013 they\u2019re scattered across the UK. That\u2019s a consequence of fearing Beijing\u2019s reach. China\u2019s informants routinely send information back home. In 2022, human-rights groups revealed that more than 100 overseas Chinese \u201cpolice stations\u201d had been established, including many in the UK; while they purported to offer services to citizens abroad, they were accused of being staging posts for the intimidation of dissidents.<\/p>\n
That China, so distant on the globe from the UK, could have such dire effects \u2013 both known and unknown \u2013 leads Knowles to write: \u201cThe crucial question is not whether, but on what terms, will we live with China from now on, as things come to a head in the opposing camps of those who fear China\u2019s military and technical dominance, and those who adopt an instrumental logic of getting along with China for the benefits it might bring to Britain.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Knowles, it turns out, lives on uneasy streets herself. Two years ago, in her north London neighbourhood, the police burst into a flat inhabited by a man whom most locals knew as \u201cBilly\u201d. In subsequent days, Knowles writes, this \u201cslender man, with smiling eyes and salt-and-pepper hair, was arrested and charged alongside two other men with spying for the Hong Kong Security Services, ultimately answerable to authorities in Beijing\u201d. For \u201cBilly\u201d was in reality Chung Biu Yuen, 65, a retired Hong Kong police officer, accused of keeping tabs on pro-democracy activists.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took the eruption caused by the arrest of Billy the Spy\u201d, Knowles writes, \u201cto unearth all sorts of rumours and usually buried feelings about China in the neighbourhood\u201d. In a WhatsApp group, one concerned resident asked: \u201cWhich block are the spies at?\u201d Since Uneasy Streets went to press, Chung and another man, Chi Leung Wai (aka \u201cPeter\u201d), have become the first people in British history to be convicted of spying for China. Later this month, a judicial review brought by Royal Mint residents will be heard.<\/p>\n
\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606<\/p>\n