The British government has quietly expelled three alleged Chinese spies posing as journalists in the past 12 months, according to a British official.
The rare case of spy journalist, 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 the Ministry of State Security in China, but arrived in the country claiming to be employees of three entities other than the Chinese media, the official said, confirming the Telegraph report. Their real roles were discovered by the British counterintelligence agency, MI5, and they were sent home, according to the report and confirmed by the official. Media organizations are not being identified.
Western countries’ caution about Chinese influence is growing beyond the economy, such as trade imbalances and intellectual property protections. Increasingly, Western lawmakers, including in the United States, see China’s links to the media, telecommunications and education as a threat to national security.
British officials say they have had to adjust in recent years to what they call the serious and growing threat of spying from China, which has long craved trade secrets but is increasingly seeking information from the government. They did not describe the 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 from the Chinese state news network CGTN, a major setback in Europe for China’s main international news channel.
Meanwhile, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denounced British Broadcasting Corp. for news that it claimed to have defamed the way Beijing handled the Covid-19 pandemic and the treatment of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang. Beijing also denounced the UK’s decision to offer a path to citizenship for some Hong Kong residents, while the two sides discuss personal freedom in the former British colony.
In the United States, allegations of Chinese espionage and pressure of influence increased during the Trump administration. He asked universities to close the Beijing-funded Confucius Institutes because of concerns that they would sell advertising and demand that major Chinese news publishers register as foreign missions, equating them with government outposts. When he ordered the closure of the Chinese consulate in Houston, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called him a “spy den.”
China’s media represent a particular challenge for Western governments because they are administered by the state, blurring the boundaries between the collection of information for journalism and the objectives of the state.
As a verification of espionage through the media, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission in 2017 recommended that Washington designate officials from Chinese newspapers and television groups in the US as agents of the foreign government, “given that efforts by Chinese intelligence gathering and information warfare are known to involve officials from Chinese state-run media organizations. ”
Speaking about the latest case in the UK, a spokesman for a group of critical Beijing lawmakers called the Interparliamentary Alliance on China said: “It is no surprise that a regime that tarnishes journalists’ names, keeping them as propagandists, take this a step further and hide spies in your ranks. “
Beijing in recent days has criticized what it described as British efforts to taint the Chinese government and undermine its interests.
The Foreign Ministry said on Friday that it had lodged a complaint with the BBC Beijing office about news of Covid-19 and Xinjiang’s response, asking the BBC to “stop defaming and deliberately attacking China”.
The ministry also threatened to retaliate against Britain’s cancellation of the CGTN broadcasting license.
“The Chinese side calls on the British side to immediately cease its political manipulations and remedy its mistakes,” said ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Friday at a routine meeting.
He did not dispute the British regulator’s determination that the CGTN is controlled by the Communist Party of China, saying, instead, that British officials have long known how China, as a socialist country, manages its media.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman’s response was more subdued to the accusations of espionage journalism. Wang told reporters he was not aware of this, but reiterated Beijing’s position that the UK-based Chinese media has been operating legally.
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