Last month, the British government issued a "notice of final order" that China-registered Future Technology Devices International Holding Ltd must sell 80.2 percent of Scottish fabless semiconductor firm FTDI, due to national security risks.

With the U.S., the EU, and Canada all taking action recently to impose tariffs on Chinese EV imports, there has been some recent discussion in the UK about whether it should follow the lead of the others.

In late June, a British appeals court ruled in favor of a claim by human rights groups that the UK government was not taking appropriate action under specific UK statutes to address concerns about products made in Xinjiang with forced labor.

Last week, the British government imposed a new round of sanctions against Russia's "war machine," with five Chinese companies targeted.

Last week, UK Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden gave a speech at Chatham House on economic security in which he indicated that the UK would be ratcheting up its efforts on national security reviews of inbound investment, outbound investment, and export controls.

In a recent anti-dumping and countervailing duties investigation on optical fibre cables from China, the UK's Trade Remedy Authority (TRA) recommended imposing anti-dumping and countervailing duties, and in its reasoning in the anti-dumping case it took into account Chinese government influence over the industry and labor policies.

In recent months, there have been reports and commentary about investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) lawsuits by Huawei against the governments of both the United Kingdom and Portugal, as well as a lawsuit in domestic court against Portugal.