China’s top security ministry on Monday accused Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency of convincing a couple who worked for unnamed central Chinese government agencies to become spies for the British government.
In a post on its official WeChat account, China’s Ministry of State Security said that officers from Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency had lured a man with the surname Wang who worked for a Chinese government agency on a part-time job as a consultant and offered him a large salary during his visit paid as part of an exchange program to Great Britain.
The Chinese ministry said MI6 trained Mr Wang as a spy and ordered him to return to China to collect intelligence. It was said his wife, who has the surname Zhou, had also agreed to spy for Britain. China said the matter was continuing to be investigated but it was not clear whether the couple would be arrested by Chinese authorities.
This is the latest in a series of back-and-forth espionage allegations between Beijing and London that have escalated tensions between the two countries.
Last month, three men were charged in Britain with gathering intelligence for Hong Kong, a former British colony now under Chinese rule, to track pro-democracy activists living in Britain.
China has condemned these latest allegations. It said Britain had made a series of “baseless and defamatory” allegations of espionage and cyberattacks against Beijing.
In March, the British government accused China of cyberattacks that compromised the voting records of tens of millions of people. Additionally, two men arrested last year were accused of spying for China. One of the men worked as a researcher in Parliament alongside prominent lawmakers on China policy.
In this latest allegation of espionage, China said MI6 began courting Mr. Wang in 2015 when he applied to study in Britain as part of an exchange program. It said MI6 took “particular care of him” and learned he had a “strong desire for money”.
After overpaying him for his consulting work, the British agents revealed their true intentions to Mr. Wang, the Ministry of State Security said. MI6 forced Mr Wang to lure his wife, who worked in “a central and crucial unit” of the Chinese government, into the operation and promised to pay them twice as much, China said.
Beijing, in turn, is making its own allegations of British espionage. In January, China’s State Security Ministry said it had arrested the head of a foreign consulting agency for working as a spy for the British government to collect state secrets. The agency said British intelligence recruited and trained the individual, who came from an unspecified “third country” in the United Kingdom and other locations. This person provided the British government with 14 state secrets, the ministry said.
These allegations are difficult to verify because there are few details beyond information provided by Chinese security agencies, and espionage cases in China are not publicly available.
China’s state security has increasingly highlighted the threat of espionage through advisory activities. Through social media posts and online comics, citizens are urged to be vigilant about the hidden risks.
The ministry released a comic this year based on an actual espionage investigation by a special state security officer who covertly infiltrated a consulting firm owned by a “partner” of a foreign spy. This official found evidence that this company was illegally contacting experts in sensitive industries.
Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London, said verifying the MI6 case, like China’s previous accusation, would be nearly impossible because the Chinese provided minimal details and British intelligence was unlikely to confirm or deny the claim.
He noted that tensions between China and Britain are “higher than they have been for some time,” particularly after recent arrests. Mr Tsang said it was not clear whether this was retaliation or just a result of China’s recent “paranoia” about foreign espionage.
On Monday, Mao Ning, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said she had no further information on the case. A Downing Street spokesman declined to comment on China’s claims.
Stephen Castle contributed reporting.
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2024-06-03 14:22:25
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