A recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request published on the Government website reveals that UK government departments have procured uniforms, protective gear, and other essential items from Chinese suppliers.
This sourcing approach, while aligned with cost and procurement standards, highlights ongoing dependencies on international suppliers, sparking renewed interest in the resilience of the UK’s supply chains.
The FOI response details a range of clothing and equipment purchases from Chinese firms for several government departments, including the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and the Home Office.
The items sourced include uniforms, outerwear, and protective equipment used by personnel in various capacities across government services. The purchases reflect a broader trend of sourcing affordable and durable materials that meet the specifications required for government-issue attire and accessories.
The uniforms obtained from Chinese suppliers cover standard operational wear, including shirts, trousers, jackets, and outerwear designed for challenging conditions. Alongside these uniforms, other practical items like high-visibility jackets and fire-resistant clothing are part of the procurement list.
Accessories such as hats, gloves, and belts, essential for full uniform kits, have also been sourced from China, demonstrating the extensive range of items involved.
An MoD spokesperson said previously:
“As part of an international supply chain, around 16,000 different items of military clothing are sourced for our Armed Forces. Our contractor must abide by strict procurement regulations to ensure that any risks around modern slavery are identified and addressed during the tender process and the subsequent contract.”
When talking to a source, I was also told that all purchases adhere strictly to procurement policies and are evaluated to ensure they meet the standards required for durability and safety, there’s no question on the quality. However, with China as one of the primary suppliers, questions can be asked about the implications of sourcing critical goods from a nation with which the UK has a complex and sometimes tense trade relationship.
Are we worried about the Chinese fitting mics to shirts or smocks?
I think a balance has to be sought, we should be always trying to use UK suppliers where appropriate but when the cost differential to excessive or we have an urgent operational requirement I don’t think its too much of a problem for clothing and the like.
Any tech I agree shouldn’t come from the Chinese. The recent example of Hezbollah shows that keeping the supply chain in house is vital.
The worry here I think is similar to the PPE problem. If we get into a war situation we wouldn’t be able, necessarily, to obtain this kit for new recruits in the quantity required especially if China was allied to the party we were at war with.
fair point, I remember we had a flap on before the GW when we realised we’d sold the Iraqis our uniforms
I remember that well. uwe had huge stocks of desert combats that had not been issued for years and years so bean-counters ordered it all to be sold off.
The cost to buy replacement desert combats from a British manfacturer at almost zero notice was astronomical. Much of it was not delivered quickly enough and some soldiers deployed in temperate DPM or even a mix of the two types.
During any war we can obtain these things from friendly countries. If the war lasts long enough for this to matter.
The actual issue is that we continue to fill china’s bank balances.
During any crisis the UK needs to be capable of manufacturing its own stuff when these items might for whatever reason become dificult to source from overseas. Depending on which part of the world is on fire may well restrict access to critical materials & skills. Much of the initial days of WW2 were companies providing uniforms, pots and pans etc. Either we have these already stored or we need to have the capability of manufacturing them ourselves.
You know one of the biggest reasons the UK went from the biggest creditor in the world to the biggest debtor from 1914 to 1918 was that attitude right?
I think the biggest reason was borrowing to pay for a war
No shit, the point is that that borrowing was used to buy “these things from friendly countries.”
It’s actually a different issue. China sees all things as part of war, that include economic warfare. If china can undercut a western manufacture and so destroy that manufacturing base in the west and make the west dependent on that manufacturing in china it will do so..and consider that a strategic win against the west…it’s a basic premise of commercial warfare aka mercantilist strategies that attack your enemy and strengthen you. The west sees it as just buying from the cheapest market…but it’s not its weakening your own economy and strengthening your enemies.
People forget china is not a capitalist state. It’s communist everything it does around economics is planned for the benefit of the goals of the Chinese communist party, a party that considered the west its enemies.
You are perfectly correct and our short sighted cheapest price mantra is our undoing.
This is what they ard trying to do with cars too. Flood the western markets with cheap cars so that western manufacturers close down. Then we are wholly reliant on china for cars, if we criticise them over human rights or viruses then they can just threaten us with no cars and we’ll have to toe the line. We certainly won’t be in any position to go to war against them if we become reliant, as evidenced by Germany’s reliance on Russian oil and current economic woes.
It’s the crime of our leaders & the super rich over the last 40+ years that has put our head in the CCP noose by closing so much of our manufacturing down, sending it to China, just to make themselves even richer, even faster, irregardless of the suffering & devestation it caused our own communities, let alone how perfectly it benefitted the CCP/PLA.
Exactly
Great answer. China always plays the long game…and plays it well…and inscrutably, such that very few in the West work out their grand plan.
Indeed, people often forget as capitalist societies, our economic systems simply are…their purpose is nothing more than to turn money into more money, create more wealth, they simply exists for this purpose and the only outcome and goal is wealth creation ( our only political arguments are about how that produced wealth is divided up and shared). China as a communist state does not see increased money and wealth as the outcome and goal,( infact the CCP venerate the peasant) and if it’s engaged in capitalist like activities to make more wealth it must be for a purposes decided by the communist party with goal that is beyond simply wealth creation. The wealth creation is a step it’s decided to make to a goal….for the west to win geopolitically it needs to always have any eye on this fact and make sure it’s own capitalist systems are not being subverted to support and achieve the purpose and goal of an enemy.
This has been publicly discussed for years. Not “News” at all.
They have been doing this for some years and to be honest its very poor quality and does not last compared to the kit of by gone years (RM’s went shopping else where in part for that reason). All uniform regardless at least should be sources within NATO but better from home sourced companies who can drop the cost if they get the volumes needed to make it work while. The new RN at sea No8’s comes form China and its a real drop in standards compared to the older kit for which an all in one would have suited the task better. Also note all uniform is now the responsibility of the Army, give it back to the single services and lets improve the situation all round. China is killing the West and its time to wake up.
If I remember correctly the Soldier 95 material was sourced from China. As well as lot of the clothing. The “multi-climate” trousers were particularly rubbish.
The RM’s still use the Chinese made PCS for most of their work, keeping the American Crye Percision stuff mostly for Photo-Ops.
I remember my TA issue of Windows 95 was made in Rumania. Its always gone on. Sad thing is we have individuals buying kit from Arktis and Helikon Tex because the issue is pure crap. One British made, one Polish but made to a very high spec in Vietnam. And remember the millions wasted chucking DPM, would have made economic sense to store it. Just in case.
We were using Crye clothing in Afghan. For starters it had sewn in knee pads. What a difference to the crap issue stuff, knowing that when kneeling, you wouldn’t tear your knees to pieces. Even the latest MTP doesn’t have that. Mind you, can’t put a crease in a trouser that has knee armour, just wouldn’t look smart!
Aye, British issue mostly sucks. We even had a battalion standing order that hoods on smocks could not be used. Of course it was some dork who deemed they did not look “smart” lol!
Crye offers trousers that doesn’t have the knee armour as well. We use those for in camp, and the knee pad version out of camp.
Crye trousers also put the taxpayer back about 200£ a pair, while PCS MTP trousers only cost like a tenner.
The Crye kit may have cost more. But they lasted a damn sight longer. Having a double panel in the arse of the trousers and stretchy material behind the knees and inner thigh. I think also helped. Over a 6 month period I went through three sets of Crye trousers. Well two really, the third pair had hydraulic fluid all over them from a Foxhound’s burst power steering pump. So were still useable after a wash, but not really presentable, as they turned slightly pink! Still can’t believe I had to hand them back when I left.
What you’re saying is “Over six months I went through £600 worth of trousers.” Have a think about that and realise why the MoD doesn’t buy them when they can buy trousers that cost about 10£ instead.
I fully understand the cost difference. But is it a false economy? The two sets of trousers that were properly trashed, was due to the amount of crawling about over the dried mud and sharp stones. So the front sides were heavily worn. I’m pretty certain that the standard Soldier 95, dessies or MTP wound have been trashed within a week.
I know Crye kit is expensive, but due to the build quality. It was one less piece of kit to worry about.
You went through three pairs of trousers, that’s 600£ worth. At that rate you would have had to trash something like 40 pairs of PCS trousers to make the delta worth it, and enough people went through Afghan with PCS to make it clear that, even with the durability differences, people don’t tend to go through that many pairs.
I don’t disagree, but we were issued Crye kit and sadly had to make do.
If the quality of some items is poor it is because the MoD Spec was badly written.
Sold by the one legged businessman,
Ty Won Shu. 😁
We’ve allowed way too much vital manufacturing to be shipped off to China, plus the drive to minimise costs on recklessly inadequate funding has probably led us to sourcing kit from China. China is the greatest threat to our way of life, yet many of our leaders & politicians have fawned after Chinese funding, ignoring the fact that it is one CCP monster with many faces seeking to subvert & undermine us which we’re making rich enough to try to overturn freedom, human rights & democracy worldwide.
We really must start preparing for all Chinese supplied imports & army kit to stop & make it ourselves.
Agreed 100٪
100% agree!!
The west are mugs, we have allowed ourselves to gift many billions of £/$/etc to a potential enemy whilst simultaneously destroying our own manufacturing capability. All done in open sight, with our leaders eyes wide open, in the name of capitalist greed. It’s seen everywhere you look, starting with the mugs foaming at the mouth with glee as they order the latest direct from China online tat at bargain prices, and it just escalates on from there.
Someone’s making money in the UK no the less
The MOD generally use the cheapest bid when it comes to not technical stuff. Having seen the contractual issues in the past, it does not surprise me. There was at one point, RAF Shirts being made in Malaysia, but the contract was with a Spanish company who then contracted it out and was still making money. The MOD system for contracts is not fit for purpose. They could quite easy get 2-3 UK suppliers to make goods and it might not be as expensive as everyone makes out. If you use 2-3 suppliers you have resilience in the system should anything happen to one of those companies. Additionally there would be capacity to ramp up production should there be a Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR).
I get it , we cant make this stuff in the UK anymore but at least buy it from an an ally nit a potential enemy
Perhaps we should do what the yanks do; make prisoners work to produce military clothing, etc
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As someone who has lived and worked in CCP China for nearly 10 years, I could not agree more with some of the comments above.
Over the years I’ve had numerous PRC people laugh in my face at the stupidity of those with the decision-making power from countries such as ours.
They take pride in the way we have gutted our own manufacturing base, our own supply chains and how we have quite literally paid them to do it. (My personal observation is that Germany is the worst culprit of all.) One particular bloke declared that they have a “masterplan” to dominate and exploit any country they choose, with particular attention on the UK in order to seek “revenge” for their “century of humiliation”. It made him giggle like a little girl to think that they’ve used the IMF and World Bank to help in this endeavour.
Their entire economy is set up for this purpose. The two currency system — onshore to allow unlimited money printing and offshore to give the illusion of a float — is designed to exchange Monopoly money (onshore) for the real deal.
They want us to be completely reliant; they want us to have no other options. Just look at how many new billionaires were minted due to the over-reliance of PRC medical equipment companies during the pandemic.
It brings to mind the Finnish manufacturer/retailer Varustaleka’s project to rid their supply chain of this reliance on CCP China. They make the point that in any crisis situation, textiles are absolutely vital in almost every item or application — it’s not just about clothing. And the imperialism of their next-door neighbour has driven them to take this threat much more seriously.
The UK is full of competent, high-quality manufacturers who in some cases supplied our forces when they numbered in the millions. Many newer companies are renowned across the world for their outdoor or climbing equipment. We absolutely have the capabilities to meet the demand; it all comes down to how the money is allocated.