The Conservative party “acted swiftly” to block two potential parliamentary candidates from standing, after warnings from MI5 that they could be spying for China, a government minister has said. The health minister Maria Caulfield was speaking after it was revealed that the Tories dropped two potential candidates to become MPs after MI5 warned they had links to China’s United Front Work Department, a body charged with influencing global policy and opinion. The Times reported that concerns were raised over the pair separately in 2021 and 2022. They were subsequently blocked…
Tag: Espionage
High-octane, sexy, glamorous? Sorry, in this Sunak era even the ‘spy’ scandals are dull | Marina Hyde
The opening to the James Bond movie Spectre follows the titular spy in Day of the Dead costume as he moves through vast crowds at the spectacular celebrations in Mexico City. Into a six-star hotel, past a masquerade party, whereupon his glamorous companion produces a key. Up to her room, passionate kiss, she’s on the bed – but he’s stripped down to his Savile Row suit and a Glock 17, and is straight out the window across the rooftops to assassinate a man for having a terrible ponytail. Misses, survives…
UK espionage saga a ‘wake-up call’ for Australian parliament, opposition says
An espionage scandal in the UK should serve as a “major wake-up call” for Australia, a senior opposition member has said. Australia’s shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, called on both countries to “harden” their political systems to reduce the risk of alleged compromise, including wider use of vetting of staff members. British MPs complained that they should have been told sooner than an aide operating at the heart of parliament had been arrested on suspicion of allegedly spying for China and breaching the UK’s Official Secrets Act. The man,…
Forget ‘Chinese spies’, trade not espionage should be Britain’s main concern with China | Simon Jenkins
Today’s claim that a Chinese spy in his 20s cruising the Westminster drinks circuit might pose a threat to the British state is absurd. MPs always overstate their role in foreign affairs. Boris Johnson, back in 2017 when he was foreign secretary, might have felt a macho thrill from sending an aircraft carrier to the South China Sea – where it could be sunk in an hour – but Britain’s defences are no more vulnerable to Chinese attack than China’s are to Britain. It is all defence lobby hyperventilation. Linking…
Isabel Crook obituary
The pioneering anthropologist Isabel Crook, who has died aged 107, was the last survivor of that generation of sympathetic westerners who joined Mao Zedong’s rural revolution and stayed on after 1949 to build a “new China” – with mixed fortunes. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) her husband David Crook was accused of spying and imprisoned for five years, while Isabel was locked up for three years on their college campus. The couple retained their belief in the post-Mao leadership of the Communist party until, horrified by the Beijing massacre in…
New Zealand intelligence report accuses China of ‘foreign interference’
New Zealand’s intelligence service has accused China of foreign interference in its democracy, amid increasing tensions and geopolitical competition in the region. In a declassified threat assessment report released on Friday, the country’s spy agency, NZSIS, said there were “foreign intelligence agencies who persistently and opportunistically conduct espionage operations against New Zealand”. It discussed “the activities of three states in particular: the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia” – but focused much of its discussions of internal interference by the Chinese state, including “ongoing…
Retired Canada police officer charged with foreign interference for China
A retired police officer in Canada has been arrested and is facing rare charges under the country’s national security laws, police said on Friday. William Majcher, 60, “allegedly used his knowledge and his extensive network of contacts in Canada to obtain intelligence or services to benefit the People’s Republic of China”, the Royal Canadian Mounted police said in a news release. Majcher is alleged to have “contributed to the Chinese government’s efforts to identify and intimidate an individual outside the scope of Canadian law”. Majcher is head of EMIDR, a…
China complicit in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, says MI6 chief
The head of MI6 has accused China’s government and its leader, Xi Jinping, of being “absolutely complicit” in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in a rare public address in Prague. Sir Richard Moore, who has been chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service since 2020, also offered comment on the extraordinary mutiny in June by the mercenary Wagner group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin. Shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine, Xi and Vladimir Putin signed a “no limits” partnership between their countries. After the war began, China’s government sought to present itself as…
Fears for people and firms as China’s new anti-espionage law comes into effect
A revised law dramatically expanding China’s definition of espionage has come into force, giving Beijing even more power to punish what it deems threats to national security. The US government, analysts and lawyers say that the revisions to Beijing’s anti-espionage law are vague and will give authorities more leeway in implementing already opaque national security legislation. The US National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) said the law, which came into effect on Saturday, gives Beijing “expanded legal grounds for accessing and controlling data held by US firms in China”. The…
China reportedly reaches secret deal with Cuba to host spy base on island
China has reached a secret deal with Cuba to establish an electronic eavesdropping facility on the island roughly 100 miles from Florida, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing US officials familiar with classified intelligence. Such a spy installation would allow Beijing to gather electronic communications from the south-eastern United States, which houses many US military bases, as well as to monitor ship traffic, the newspaper reported. The US Central Command headquarters is based in Tampa. Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg, the largest US. military base, is based in North…