June 27 2020, 12.01am London Times

President Xi was said to have lauded the work of the 48 Group Club at a meeting

ALAMY

Hidden Hand

The book, released in Australia last week and Canada Today, chronicles Beijing’s influence <https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/time-is-running-out-for-the-west-to-stop-chinas-global-takeover-gfk39wx3x> in Britain through the Chinese Communist Party as far reaching and unstoppable. It says that while the club, with 500 members and headquarters in London, keeps a very low profile at home it serves as a networking hub “through which Beijing grooms Britain’s elites”.

The claims come as British universities are to be told how to protect themselves from interference <https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/universities-given-tools-to-defend-freedoms-amid-fears-over-china-tjxkclg7z> by foreign powers amid fears about the influence of China <https://www.thetimes.co.uk/topic/china> on campuses. Senior politicians, academics and former diplomats have put a spotlight on foreign interference, drawing particular attention to the financial dependency of universities on Chinese research grants and students.

It came as China passed a controversial national security law overnight giving it sweeping powers over Hong Kong, which critics fear will curb political freedoms and civil liberties within the territory.

“In our judgment, so entrenched are the [Chinese] influence networks among British elites that Britain has passed the point of no return and any attempt to extricate itself from Beijing’s orbit would probably fail,” wrote Hamilton, a professor of public ethics at Charles Sturt University and his co-author, Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow in the Asia programme of the German Marshall Fund. Professor Hamilton is regarded as an expert on the Chinese Communist Party.

The book, Professor Hamilton’s second on the rising influence of the Communist Party, says that in 2018 Mr Perry had an audience with President Xi, a meeting the authors say shows that the party regards the 48 Group Club — named after a trade mission of 48 businessmen in the 1950s — as central to its influence efforts in Britain.

At their meeting Mr Xi lauded the work of the club and Mr Perry in turn praised China’s “tremendous achievement” and praised the Chinese leader’s vision “of a community with a shared future for humanity”.

Mr Perry was the only Briton among ten foreigners awarded the China Reform and Friendship Medal in 2018 to mark the 40th anniversary of the economic reforms known as “Socialism with Chinese characteristics”.

The authors identify their source for details of the meeting and what was said as Mr Perry’s blog on the 48 Group Club’s website. The book also has footnotes on Mr Perry’s blog six other times as a source for its chapter on the club.

After the club’s website disappeared, a notice at its address said that it was undergoing maintenance. An archived snapshot of the website, from December, listed current and former MPs, peers, chief executives, and prominent individuals from academia and media as “fellows”.

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Not all those listed recognised the club when approached by The Times, however. Richard Graham, a Conservative MP, said he was unaware of being a fellow of the group, but said it was “very kind” of them to offer it.

Jack Straw, a former Labour home secretary, said that he had never heard of the club “so why I’m on their website I’ve no idea”.

Lord Heseltine, listed as a founding patron, confirmed his links to the group. He said it was a network primarily for people involved in trade with China in some form and defended its usefulness as a forum in which to communicate with Chinese diplomats and politicians. “I’ve spoken at a number of their big dinners, when I have made comments that are frank about Chinese activity,” he said.

Hidden Hand was published digitally in Germany in May and is a bestseller.

Professor Hamilton said that the book’s UK publisher, Oneworld, had received a letter from lawyers that claimed Mr Perry and the 48 Group Club had been defamed. “We will be responding robustly,” he said. “The book is meticulously documented. We stand by our research.”

In a statement the board of the 48 Group Club confirmed that it had taken legal advice. “We were, and remain, concerned about some of its reported content, not least since at no time did the authors attempt to contact us in the course of their research.”

It added: “The 48 Group Club is not in any sense a vehicle for Beijing. It is an independent body promoting understanding of China and positive Sino-British relations, which we believe to be in the UK’s national interest. Any suggestion to the contrary is quite false.”

The club said it awarded fellowships to people it considered to have made outstanding contributions to Sino- British relations, and this status did not entail commitments or obligations.

Mr Perry declined to comment.