UK Parliamentary aide suspected of spying for China Sunak expresses deep concern

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed his “deep concern” about “Chinese interference in British parliamentary democracy” following his Chinese prime minister’s arrest for spying this Sunday, a Downing Street spokesman said.

According to “The Sunday Times”, British authorities in March arrested two parliamentary staff accused of violating the Official Secrets Act of 1911 – one in the Oxford region in southeast England and the other in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh. Allegedly spying for China. Both were released on bail.

One of these UK Parliamentary staff was arrested on March 13 along with another person. The alleged spy is an adviser to the UK Parliament, who is in his 20s and has worked in international politics, particularly relations with Beijing, and has worked in China.

In the United Kingdom, he was associated with representatives of the ruling Conservative Party. They included Defense Minister Tom Tugendhat and Alicia Kearns, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, the lower house of parliament. Agents from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter-Terrorism Squad are investigating the case.

British parliamentary sources told the newspaper that it was “a major escalation” by China and that such a case had “never been seen before”. On the sidelines of the G20 summit, British Justice Minister Alex Sack said the China issue was an “era-defining” challenge.

The Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for China, which brings together dozens of representatives from several countries, said it was “shocked by reports that a person allegedly acting on behalf of the People’s Republic of China has infiltrated the UK Parliament”.

In July, the House of Commons Intelligence and Security Committee warned in a report that Chinese intelligence was “often aggressively” interfering with the United Kingdom. The document highlighted that China had managed to “successfully infiltrate all sectors of the UK economy” and that Chinese state interference in fields ranging from universities to nuclear power was “not difficult to detect”.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs guarantees to respect the policy of non-interference in the affairs of other countries.