Oliver Conway

We track what their ships do.

We track what their submarines are doing.

We know that they are mapping our undersea cables and our networks and our pipelines.

And we know that they are developing new capabilities all the time to put those at risk.

Looking on as the politicians are briefed is the man charged with supervising Britain's response, the First Sea Lord General Sir Gwynne Jenkins.

He faces a daunting challenge, keeping up with an opponent who hasn't declared war but is investing heavily and behaving aggressively.

Despite the cost of the war in Ukraine to them, they continue to put hundreds of billions of dollars worth of investment into their submarine fleets.

I would say we, the Allies, we're still ahead in the Atlantic, but it's not by as much of an advantage as I would like.

Russia says it's Britain that's being provocative, even hysterical.

But the military says it's clear-eyed about the current dangers and it's working closely with industry to address them as quickly as possible.

A diplomatic correspondent, Paul Adams.

The latest economic data from China shows that while exports to the US have crashed in the past year, exports overall have actually gone up.

In fact, China's annual trade surplus has topped a trillion dollars for the first time, an amount no country has ever reached, as Chinese manufacturers find alternative markets.

Nick Marsh spoke to William Lee Adams.

Well, this data focuses on goods specifically, and it is pretty remarkable because it shows that between January and November this year, China exported a trillion dollars worth more goods to the rest of the world than it imported.

That's the first time that they're

export trade surplus has gone over a trillion dollars for goods and if you look at November specifically exports rose there six percent compared to the year before.

Interestingly if you look at how much China is selling to the United States well in November the

there was a drop of 29%, so nearly a third less that China is selling to the US compared to the same time last year.

And it's interesting, isn't it, William?