Lord Mayor of London’s Ties to China Spark Security Concerns

On 23 Decem­ber 2023, the Dai­ly Mail report­ed that the Lord May­or of Lon­don, Michael Mainel­li, faces crit­i­cism for his exten­sive con­nec­tions with the Chi­nese regime. Mainel­li, who chairs a think-tank spon­sored by a Chi­nese insti­tute close­ly tied to Bei­jing, has been accused of naivety and poten­tial­ly being unfit to help the City com­bat threats from Bei­jing. MI5 and the FBI have warned of Chi­na’s glob­al covert pres­sure, rais­ing con­cerns about Mainelli’s encour­age­ment of Chi­nese nation­als join­ing Lon­don’s ancient guilds. His actions include appear­ing along­side a float cel­e­brat­ing China’s Belt and Road Ini­tia­tive at the Lord May­or’s Show and accept­ing a 6ft repli­ca ter­ra­cot­ta war­rior from Xi’an, Chi­na. Crit­ics, includ­ing for­mer Tory leader Sir Iain Dun­can Smith and mil­i­tary intel­li­gence offi­cer Philip Ingram, express con­cerns over Mainel­li’s under­stand­ing of the Chi­nese threat and the poten­tial influ­ence of Chi­na in London’s finan­cial sec­tor through these connections.