According to a British official, the British government has quietly expelled three alleged Chinese spies who pretended to be journalists.
The rare journalist-spy case, first reported by the British newspaper Telegraph and not officially announced by London, is the latest sign of deteriorating relations between two countries that just a few years ago announced a “golden age” in ties .
The three worked for China’s State Security Ministry, but arrived in the country with the intention of being employees of three separate Chinese media entities, the official said, confirming the Telegraph report. The British counterintelligence agency, MI5, discovered their true papers and they were sent home, according to the report and confirmed by the official. Media organizations are not identifying themselves.
Prudence in Western countries over Chinese influence is growing beyond the economy, such as trade imbalances and protection of intellectual property. Increasingly, Western policymakers, including the United States, see China’s links to the media, telecommunications, and education as a threat to national security.
British officials say that in recent years they have had to adjust to what they call a serious and growing threat of espionage by China, which has long been the subject of trade secrets, but which is increasingly seeking government information. They have not represented activity as aggressive as Russian espionage, which has been a British focus for decades.
Earlier this week, the UK communications regulator withdrew its broadcasting license on the state-run CGTN news network, a key setback in Europe for China’s main international news channel.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has criticized British Broadcasting Corp. by the news that allegedly tarnished Beijing’s manipulation of the Covid-19 pandemic and its treatment of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang. Beijing has also denounced the UK’s decision to offer a path to citizenship for some Hong Kong residents, as both sides save the personal liberties of the former British colony.
In the United States, allegations of Chinese espionage and influence pressure increased during the Trump administration. He relied on universities to close Beijing-funded Confucius Institutes, worrying about selling propaganda, and demanded that major Chinese news publishers register as foreign missions, equating them to government advances. When he ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called it a “spy lair.”
The Chinese media pose a particular challenge to Western governments because they are state administrations and blur the lines between gathering information for journalism and state purposes.
As a check on media espionage, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in 2017 recommended that Washington designate agents of U.S. newspapers and television groups in the United States as foreign government agents, “given that Chinese intelligence-gathering efforts are known to involve staff from state-run Chinese media organizations.”
Speaking of the latest case in the UK, a spokesman for a group of lawmakers critical of Beijing, called the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said: “It is little surprise that a regime that damages journalists’ names by keeping them as propagandists take it one step further and hide spies in its ranks ”.
Beijing in recent days has criticized what it portrayed as British efforts to wrap up the Chinese government and undermine its interests.
The Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it had lodged a complaint with the BBC’s Beijing office over news of Covid-19 and Xinjiang’s response, which called on the BBC to “deliberately stop staining and attacking China “.
The ministry also threatened retaliation over Britain’s cancellation of CGTN’s broadcasting license.
“The Chinese side urges the British side to immediately stop its political manipulations and remedy its mistakes,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Friday in a routine briefing.
He did not dispute the British regulator’s determination that CGTN was ultimately controlled by the Communist Party of China, saying instead that the British authorities had been aware of how China, as a socialist country, managed its media.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman’s response was more muted in the face of spy journalism allegations. Wang told reporters he was unaware of it, but reiterated Beijing’s position that the UK-based Chinese media have been operating lawfully.
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