The British government has quietly expelled three suspected Chinese spies posing as journalists over the past 12 months, a British official said.
The rare journalist espionage 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 ushered in a “golden age” in tapes just a few years ago.
The three worked for China’s State Security Ministry but arrived in the country claiming to be employees of three separate Chinese media entities, the official said, confirming the Telegraph report. Their true role was discovered by the British Counterintelligence Service, MI5, and they were sent home, according to the report and confirmed by the official. The media organizations are not identified.
Western countries’ vigilance about Chinese influence is growing beyond just economic aspects, such as trade imbalances and intellectual property protection. Western policymakers, including in the US, increasingly see China’s links with media, telecommunications and education as a threat to national security.
British officials say they have had to get used to what they call a serious and growing espionage threat from China in recent years, which has long focused on commercial secrets but is increasingly seeking government information. They have not portrayed the activity as aggressively as Russian espionage, which has been a British focus for decades.
Earlier this week, the UK communications regulator stripped China’s state news network CGTN of its broadcast license, a major setback in Europe for China’s main international news channel.
Meanwhile, China’s Foreign Ministry has launched the British Broadcasting Corp. pilloried for news reports that allegedly defiled Beijing’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the treatment of ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Beijing has also denounced the UK’s move to offer a path to citizenship for some Hong Kong residents as the two sides spar over personal freedoms in the former British colony.
In the US, allegations of Chinese espionage and influencing pressure increased during the Trump administration. It relied on universities to shut down Beijing-funded Confucius Institutes over concerns that they were spreading propaganda and requiring major Chinese news outlets to 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 it a “spy hole.”
China’s media outlets present a particular challenge to Western governments because they are state-run, blurring lines between the collection of information for journalism and state purposes.
As a check on spying through media outlets, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission in 2017 recommended that Washington designate employees of Chinese newspaper and television groups in the US as agents of the foreign government, “ since Chinese intelligence gathering and information warfare is known to be includes the staff of Chinese state media organizations. “
Speaking on the latest case in the UK, a spokesman for a group of lawmakers who criticized Beijing, called the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said: “It is no surprise that a regime is defiling the name of journalists by holding them as propagandists. step further and hide spies in their ranks. “
Beijing has in recent days criticized what it has portrayed as British attempts to smear the Chinese government and undermine its interests.
The State Department said Friday it had complained to the BBC’s Beijing office over the news reports of the response to Covid-19 and Xinjiang, calling on the BBC to “stop deliberately contaminating and attacking China. . “
The ministry also threatened retaliation against Britain’s cancellation of CGTN’s broadcasting license.
“The Chinese side is urging the British side to immediately stop its political manipulations and correct its mistakes,” Minister spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a routine briefing Friday.
He did not dispute the determination of the British regulator that CGTN would eventually be controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, but said the British authorities had long been aware of how China, as a socialist country, was running its media.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman responded more mutedly to the allegations of journalism and espionage. Mr. Wang told reporters he was not aware of it, but reiterated Beijing’s position that Chinese media in the UK is operating legally.
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