london
—
Britain’s domestic spy agency, MI5, warned MPs on Tuesday that Chinese intelligence services are targeting parliamentary staff and posing as recruiters, just weeks after the case against two British nationals accused of spying for the Chinese government collapsed.
In its warning, MI5 said China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) uses websites like LinkedIn to build relationships with members of parliament with the aim of “gathering sensitive information about the UK to gain strategic advantage”.
Speaker of the House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle circulated an MI5 warning to MPs, warning of “relentless” efforts by Chinese state actors to “obstruct our processes and influence the workings of Parliament”. He cited two headhunters known for using their LinkedIn profiles to “conduct large-scale outreach” on behalf of Beijing.
Security Secretary Dan Jarvis told Parliament: “Let me be clear: this activity involves a secretly calculated attempt by a foreign power to interfere in our sovereign affairs for its own benefit, and this Government will not tolerate it.”
The Chinese embassy in London dismissed the claims as “complete fabrication and malicious defamation”. He announced that he called on the UK to “stop the drama of false accusations he has staged” that is damaging relations between the two countries.
MI5’s warning came after prosecutors abruptly abandoned charges last month against two British men accused of spying on Chinese government members, arguing that the government’s evidence was missing “key elements”, meaning they had “no other option” but to collapse the case.
The “key element” was the government’s refusal to call China an “enemy” or a “national security threat,” prosecutors argued. Both Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, an academic, were charged under the Official Secrets Act 1911, so they could only be prosecuted if the information they conveyed was useful to an enemy. Prosecutors said they had no choice but to drop the case because the British government had not recognized China as an “enemy.”
Downing Street said no ministers, government officials or special advisers were involved. Rather, Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused the previous Conservative government, which was in power at the time of the alleged incident, of wording its policy “very carefully” to avoid portraying China as an enemy.
Still, after the case collapsed, Starmer was accused of prioritizing relations with China over threats to Britain’s national security. The episode raised questions about Britain’s ability to balance the need to protect itself from espionage and interference while remaining economically engaged with the world’s second-largest economy. The Chinese embassy rejected the “baseless” claims.
After the collapse, MI5 chief Ken McCallum said Chinese spies routinely posed a national security threat to the UK. “When it comes to China, the UK needs to defend resolutely against the threat and seize the opportunities that clearly serve our country,” he said in October’s annual threat update.
Without mentioning the collapse of the spying case, Mr McCallum said the National Security Act 2023 addressed “long-standing weaknesses” in British law and “strengthened our hand against state-sponsored threats”.
Security Minister Jarvis said recent attempts to use headhunters to spy on MPs were based on a “pattern” of hostile activity in recent years. He cited the targeting of MPs’ emails in 2021 by people linked to the Chinese government, and the “attempted foreign interference activity” by British lawyer Christine Lee, who was accused by MI5 of spying for the Chinese government in 2022.
MI5’s latest warning comes just weeks before the government is due to decide whether to approve a huge new Chinese embassy in London. The decision was postponed in August after the Chinese government refused to explain why the plan included blacked-out areas, but critics have long argued that the proposed complex poses security problems. China said Britain had shown a “total lack of the spirit of the agreement” by delaying the decision.
Alicia Kearns, the Conservative shadow security secretary, called on the government to deny permission to the embassy and said ministers should cancel a planned trip to China.
“Despite this attack on the House of Commons and Parliament, what message does it send that ministers are willing to jet off and walk red carpets, holding the government to account?” Kearns said.
