An alleged spy working for MI6 was outed by China’s security agency on social media yesterday.
China’s Ministry of State Security accused British spies of tasking a foreigner to carry out espionage in China under the guise of working as the head of a foreign consulting agency.
In an echo of the spy scandal in Britain when Christine Lee was identified by MI5 as a Communist agent at the heart of parliament, it has been claimed that a foreign national known by the surname Huang was sent to China to collect state secrets for British intelligence.
According to Chinese officials, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service sent him to ‘China several times under instructions to use their public profile as a cover to collect China-related intelligence for Britain… and seek other personnel whom MI6 could turn.’ It alleged that Mr Huang was tapped up by MI6 in 2015 and used his position in an unnamed overseas consulting agency to conduct China-related intelligence gathering.
In a WeChat post, the ministry claimed that Huang passed 17 pieces of intelligence, including confidential state secrets, to MI6 before he was identified.
In an echo of the spy scandal in Britain when Christine Lee was identified by MI5 as a Communist agent at the heart of parliament, it has been claimed that a foreign national known by the surname Huang was sent to China to collect state secrets for British intelligence (File Photo)
He also received ‘professional intelligence training’ in Britain and had used ‘specialist spying equipment’ to send communications in an alleged ‘intelligence cooperation relationship’, it was said.
But China said an investigation ‘promptly discovered criminal evidence that Huang was engaged in espionage activities, and took criminal coercive measures in accordance with the law’.
The ministry statement revealed by Reuters did not provide Huang’s first name, employer, or whereabouts, but if true the details may be sufficient to blow his cover.
The decision to publicly identify the surname of an alleged agent will be seen by some as revenge for Britain’s hardened stance towards foreign spies attempting to infiltrate British politics.
China and Britain have traded barbs in recent months over allegations of espionage.
Chinese lawyer Christine Lee, 59, is currently suing MI5 claiming the Security Service has ruined her life by sending out an alert to MPs in 2022 warning that she was engaged in ‘political interference’, donating to ‘political parties, parliamentarians, aspiring parliamentarians’ on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.
China alleged that Mr Huang was tapped up by MI6 in 2015 and used his position in an unnamed overseas consulting agency to conduct China-related intelligence gathering (File Photo)
In a similar vein to the latest case involving a foreign consulting agency, Lee had been working as an adviser to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, an agency of the Communist Party’s network of influence overseen by its United Front Work Department.
In an unrelated case, last year Scotland Yard arrested a British national working as a parliamentary researcher in Westminster who was accused spying for China.
The man in his 20s was arrested last March in Edinburgh under the Official Secrets Act, along with another man, in his 30s, who was detained in Oxfordshire.
A file of evidence has now been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider charges.
China has repeatedly condemned the arrests, with a foreign ministry spokesman saying they were ‘entirely groundless’.
But British spy chiefs have warned recently of China’s increasingly aggressive attempts to steal British secrets.
In October, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said MI5 and police were determined to bring criminal charges against Chinese spies working covertly in Britain.
‘We are in a different world now than the world we’ve all lived in since the end of the Cold War’, he said.
In October, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said MI5 and police were determined to bring criminal charges against Chinese spies working covertly in Britain (File Photo)
‘Authoritarian states are behaving much more aggressively.’ Meanwhile, China has been cracking down on perceived threats to its own national security.
Last year, it expanded counter-espionage laws to give authorities more leeway in punishing vaguely-defined threats to national security.
China has publicised several other alleged spying cases in recent months.
In May, authorities sentenced 78-year-old American citizen John Shing-wan Leung to life in prison for espionage.
In October, the security ministry published the story of another alleged spy, surnamed Hou, who was accused of sending several secret and classified documents to the US.
The Foreign Office declined to comment on the claims yesterday.