China’s top security ministry on Monday accused the British intelligence agency MI6 of persuading a married couple who worked for unnamed Chinese central government agencies to become spies for the British government, the latest in a barrage of continuing accusations. of espionage between the two countries.
In a post on its official WeChat account, China’s Ministry of State Security said British intelligence officials from MI6 had lured a man surnamed Wang, who worked for a Chinese government agency with a part-time consulting job. part that paid him a high salary during his visit. to Great Britain as part of an exchange program.
The Chinese ministry said MI6 trained Wang to become a spy and ordered him to return to China to gather intelligence. He said his wife, who has the surname Zhou, also agreed to spy for Britain. China said the matter was under further investigation, but it is unclear whether Chinese authorities are detaining the couple.
This is the latest in a series of espionage accusations between Beijing and London, a source of growing tension between the two countries.
Last month, three men in Britain were charged with gathering intelligence for Hong Kong, a former British colony now under Chinese rule, to persecute pro-democracy activists living in Britain.
China has condemned these latest accusations. He said Britain had made a series of “baseless and defamatory” accusations of espionage and cyber attacks against Beijing.
In March, the British government accused China of cyberattacks that compromised the voting records of tens of millions of people. He also accused two men, who were arrested last year, of spying for China. One of the men worked as a researcher in Parliament alongside prominent lawmakers on China policy.
In this latest espionage allegation, China said MI6 began courting Wang in 2015 when he applied to study in Britain as part of an exchange programme. He said MI6 “took special care of him” and learned that he had “a strong desire for money.”
After overpaying him for consulting work, the British agents revealed their true intentions to Mr. Wang, the Ministry of State Security said. MI6 forced Wang to lure his wife, who worked in “a central and crucial unit” of the Chinese government, into the operation and promised to pay them double, China said.
For its part, Beijing has leveled its own accusations of British espionage. In January, China’s Ministry of State Security said it had detained the director of a foreign consulting agency for working as a spy for the British government to collect state secrets. The agency said British intelligence had recruited and trained the individual, who comes from an unspecified “third country” in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. This person provided the British government with 14 state secrets, the ministry said.
These accusations are difficult to verify because there are few details beyond the fragments of information provided by Chinese security agencies, and the espionage cases are not open to the public in China.
China’s state security has increasingly expressed the threat of espionage through consulting work. It has been imploring its citizens through social media posts and online comics to be alert to hidden risks.
The ministry this year published a comic book based on what it called a real espionage investigation by a special state security official who went undercover to infiltrate a consulting company owned by an “associate” of a foreign spy. This official found evidence that this company was illegally contacting experts in sensitive industries.
Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London, said verifying the MI6 case, like China’s earlier allegation, was almost impossible because the Chinese reveal only minimal details and British intelligence was unlikely to confirm or deny the accusation.
He noted that tension between China and Britain was “higher than it has been in a long time,” especially after the recent arrests. Tsang said it was unclear whether this was retaliation or simply China’s recent “paranoia” about foreign espionage.
On Monday, Mao Ning, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, said he had no additional information about the case. A Downing Street spokesperson declined to comment on China’s claims.
Stephen’s Castle contributed reports.