"democratic governments haven’t figured out how to combat these soft attacks from the CCP, because it’s very hard to form a national defence against subversive

"democratic governments haven’t figured out how to combat these soft attacks from the CCP, because it’s very hard to form a national defence against subversive outside influence (good) without trampling on the freedom of expression of our own citizens (bad)." I don't think that is even the beginning of the problem. The West doesn't 'react' because they are systematically incapable. Nobody is 'in charge' in the West, there are thousands of politicians, heads of states and provinces, heads of security, CEOs. The government is very tightly bound by laws. Politicians are temporary and populist. So how would the UK react to 'this thing'? Which agency? And who in that agency? Will they draft laws? What exactly would it entail? Or would it be a matter of foreign policy aka tit-for-tat? That gets complicated. There needs to be a coordinated and cohesive strategy vis-a-vis China within the nation so that lowly disempowered students who are bullied, the little company who has IP stolen etc. can all participate in some kind of meaningful process. Or probably not 'process' but at least some kind of coordinated activity.