Advertisement
China’s Communist Party
ChinaPolitics

China’s top anti-spy agency accuses Chinese married couple of spying for Britain and passing state secrets to MI6

  • It is the latest in Ministry of State Security’s public campaign to bring the public on board to counter espionage, and the second case in which it names MI6
  • MSS WeChat post says British recruiters found accused spy, whose work involved handling Chinese government secrets, could be persuaded by money

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
32
China’s Ministry of State Security says an accused spy’s recruitment in the UK started with public programmes but gradually involved core information from the Chinese government. Image: Shutterstock
Phoebe Zhangin Shenzhen
China’s top anti-espionage agency said it cracked a major espionage case involving a married Chinese couple who worked for the government while passing information to the British Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6.
It is the latest case announced by China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) amid a public campaign to counter espionage in the country, and the second involving MI6.

Besides the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the United States, MI6 is the only other spy agency the MSS has publicly named. In other cases, it simply used the descriptions “some country” and a “foreign spy agency”.

05:29

China executes scientist for spying in 2016, among 10 ‘shocking’ cases revealed in documentary

China executes scientist for spying in 2016, among 10 ‘shocking’ cases revealed in documentary

One of the employees in this case, surnamed Wang, worked in a position dealing with top state secrets, the MSS said in a WeChat article on Monday. It said he applied for an exchange programme to Britain in 2015.

According to the MSS, after Wang reached Britain, MI6 arranged for staff to invite him to parties and set up tours. After determining he could be persuaded financially, MI6 sent operatives to befriend him on campus, telling him of high-reward part-time opportunities, the ministry said in its WeChat post.

The part-time research job started with public programmes but gradually involved core information from the Chinese government and the pay offered was several times that of a regular consultation fee, the MSS said, adding that even though Wang was alert to the possibility it was contrary to China’s interest, he kept offering “consultation services”, tempted by the high fee.

China’s anti-spy agency said that after a while, MI6 disclosed its identity to Wang and asked him to serve the British government, offering higher pay and security. They then trained Wang as a spy and sent him back to China to gather more intelligence, the MSS said.

loading
Advertisement