Britain’s MI5 warned lawmakers Tuesday that Chinese operatives are stepping up efforts to gather information and influence political activity, marking the agency’s latest alert over suspected Beijing-linked spying in Parliament.
Lawmakers were told Chinese spies were targeting them by posing as headhunters or companies to make contact, with two individuals reaching out on LinkedIn to "conduct outreach at scale on behalf" of the Chinese government.
The speakers of the lower and upper houses of parliament said MI5 had said the Chinese Ministry of State Security was "actively reaching out to individuals in our community."
Britain's Security Minister Dan Jarvis told parliament the alert revealed "a covert and calculated attempt" by Beijing to interfere in U.K. politics and said the government would launch a counterespionage plan to address the threat.
"MI5 have stated that this activity is being carried out by a group of Chinese intelligence officers, often masked through the use of cover companies or external headhunters," he said.
In recent years, Britain and China have traded accusations of perceived spying. The Chinese embassy in London said the latest accusations were "pure fabrication and malicious slander."
"We strongly condemn such despicable moves of the U.K. side and have lodged stern representations with them," an embassy spokesperson said in a statement.
"We urge the U.K. side to immediately stop this self-staged charade of false accusations and self-aggrandisement, and stop going further down the wrong path of undermining China-U.K. relations."
The new warning comes after British prosecutors abandoned a case in September against two British men charged with spying on members of parliament for China, saying the British government had not provided clear evidence to show that Beijing was a threat to its national security.
The collapse of the case led to accusations from opposition politicians that Prime Minister Keir Starmer was prioritising better relations with Beijing over national security. The government denies that.
It also comes just weeks before the government must decide whether to approve a massive new Chinese embassy in London that critics say will pose a security risk.
In October, MI5 said Chinese spies were creating fake job adverts to try to lure British professionals into handing over information, with thousands of suspicious postings placed on online recruitment platforms.
In his annual speech last month, Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, said Chinese spies posed a daily national security threat and that his service had "intervened operationally" against China only the week before.
Jarvis told parliament that the foreign secretary had spoken to her Chinese counterpart on Nov. 6 to say any activity that sought to undermine Britain's national security would not be tolerated.
He said Britain would spend 170 million pounds on improving encrypted technology used by civil servants to safeguard sensitive work, in response to the threat from China and others.
There would also be security guidance for election candidates and plans to tighten rules on political donations, while Chinese-made surveillance equipment had been removed from sensitive sites.
Lawmakers should be careful because "China has a low threshold for what information is considered to be of value", Jarvis said, adding that China was also interfering with academic work in Britain’s universities.
He said ministers would hold a closed event with university leaders to highlight the risks of foreign interference.
In January 2022, MI5 sent out an alert notice about lawyer Christine Lee, alleging she was "involved in political interference activities" in the United Kingdom on behalf of China's ruling Communist Party.
Lee later sued MI5 in a bid to clear her name, but lost the case.
