In this insightful interview, we sit down with Charles Parton, a former British diplomat and current advisor to a leading think tank on Chinese affairs. With nearly four decades of experience at the Foreign Office and a career dedicated to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Parton is one of the UK's most influential independent analysts on the CCP.

From his ironic Mao collection to a 2018 recruitment attempt by China’s Ministry of State Security, Parton deconstructs Beijing’s strategic play to peel the UK away from its US alliance. The RUSI expert argues that while the public is distracted by the Mega-Embassy, they miss the real threat: "Buildings don't spy, people do." To curb diplomatic overreach, Parton proposes a Cold War-style "Ratchet System" to aggressively cap and reduce the number of Chinese officials on British soil.