The Chinese regime has targeted officials and other people in “key positions” with their recruitment schemes, the UK government said on Thursday.
It follows a string of recent revelations that suspected Chinese agents have targeted British politicians, officials, academics, and others for intelligence.
The government “recognises that Chinese recruitment schemes have tried to headhunt British and allied nationals in key positions and with sensitive knowledge and experience, including from government, military, industry and wider society,” the Cabinet Office said in a document published on Thursday.
“As the [Intelligence and Security] Committee [ISC] notes, there is more work to be done,” the Cabinet Office said.
In the report, the ISC said the Chinese regime had managed to overtly “penetrate every sector of the UK’s economy” over the years through takeovers, mergers, and interactions with British academia and industry.
It also said the UK was high on Beijing’s list of targets for espionage and interference given its global influence and its relationship with the United States.
The 222-page report criticised the government and security agencies for their “serious failure” in protecting UK assets and negligence in tackling the Chinese interference activities in the UK.
“Until recently, our agencies did not even recognize that they had any responsibility for countering Chinese interference activity in the UK,” the report said at the time.
The committee also said Whitehall’s approach to the threat of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was inadequately resourced, incoherent, and short-sighted, and called for a cross-departmental approach to countering the threat.
The ISC is the parliamentary watchdog of security agencies including the MI5, MI6, GCHQ, Defence Intelligence, the Joint Intelligence Organisation, the National Security Secretariat, and Homeland Security Group.
In its response published on Thursday, the government listed the progress that had been made since the ISC took the bulk of its evidence in 2020, including the passing of new laws to target foreign agents and the setting up of task forces and public bodies to focus on different aspects of the foreign threat.
But it also recognised that the report had identified areas where further improvement could be made, saying ministers had “considered the committee’s conclusions and recommendations in full with this in mind, to assess where further action should be taken.”
According to the government, the National Protective Security Authority’s (NPSA) “Think Before You Link” app, which helps identify fake LinkedIn and other social media accounts, has attracted 25,000 app users who had “generated a number of suspicious reports into social media accounts of concern.”
The app was part of the NPSA’s campaign to raise awareness about headhunting by foreign agents.
In a case study published in 2021 by the NSPA, Jason, an Engineer at UK Defence Contractor with security clearance was invited to travel to a foreign country for meetings before being asked for “detailed technical information on military aircraft.”
Besides on social media, a number of suspected spying activities have been revealed in recent months, including those connected to the United Front Work Department (UFWD), a department of the CCP Central Committee responsible for gaining political influence in and outside of China.
The Times of London on Tuesday said the Conservative Party removed two potential candidates after MI5 warned about their links with the UFWD.
The publication last week reported on the arrest of a well-connected parliamentary researcher, whom it said may have been recruited by China.
Last year, MI5 issued an alert to Parliament about Christine Ching Kui Lee, who facilitated political donations to a number of parties, parliamentarians, and aspiring parliamentarians, over alleged covert coordination with the UFWD.
An individual connected to one of China’s unofficial “overseas police service stations” in London was also found to have connections to the UFWD.
