The Chinese regime accused MI6 on Monday of turning two Chinese government officials, who are married to each other, into British agents.
The accusation came weeks after three men were charged in the UK with spying for Hong Kong.
It’s the second spying allegation China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) has made against the British intelligence agency this year.
On Monday, MSS published a statement on Chinese social media platform WeChat, claiming it had uncovered another major espionage case involving MI6.
A couple who worked at a Chinese “central state organ,” Mr. Wang and Ms. Zhou, were recruited by the British agency to gather information, MSS claimed.
According to the ministry, MI6 groomed Mr. Wang since 2015 when he was studying in the UK as part of an official exchange programme, and eventually recruited and trained him to gather information related to China.
MSS also claimed that MI6 persuaded Mr. Wang to turn his wife.
The statement said the couple both held key positions that had access to classified information, but didn’t give any details such as their full names, where they are from, what positions they have held, or what type of information they have allegedly gathered.
The investigation is still ongoing, MSS claimed.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was Britain’s “longstanding policy not to comment on the work of our intelligence agencies.”
Espionage Charges
MSS’s accusation on Monday is the latest of a series of espionage allegations thrown around between the UK and the CCP.On May 13, three men were charged under the new National Security Act with spying and surveillance for Hong Kong and forcing entry into a UK residential address.
The other two defendants, Chi Leung Wai, 38, and Chung Biu Yuen, 64, have not entered pleas. A further hearing at the Old Bailey will take place on Oct. 25, and a provisional five-week trial has been set for Kingston Crown Court from Feb. 10, 2025.
Meanwhile, two men, Christopher Cash, 29, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, 32, were charged in April with spying for China under the Official Secrets Act 1911.
The men are yet to enter pleas and their trials are also likely to be held in 2025.
Mr. Cash and Mr. Berry were first arrested in March 2023, and the Metropolitan Police passed the case file to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration in January.
Four days later, MSS claimed it had identified an individual, Huang, from an unspecified “third country,” and accused him or her of providing 14 “state secrets” and three other pieces of intelligence to Britain.
In recent years, the intelligence community in the UK has increasingly warned of Beijing’s influence and espionage campaigns.
According to MI5 Director Gen. Ken McCallum, Chinese agents have targeted at least 20,000 Britons on websites such as LinkedIn in a bid to extract information.
The Cabinet Office said in September last year that the Chinese regime had been trying to “headhunt British and allied nationals in key positions and with sensitive knowledge and experience, including from government, military, industry and wider society.”
In a report published in July 2023, the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament warned that the UK is “just below China’s top priority targets” of espionage and interference.
The report warned of China’s state intelligence apparatus and the CCP’s “whole-of-state” approach in which any Chinese organisation or citizen may be willingly or unwillingly co-opted into espionage and interference operations overseas, making it more difficult for UK intelligence agencies to detect.
