Chinese spy sought to influence members of the UK’s Parliament: MI5

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Jan 13, 2022: According to a report by Al Jazeera, Britain’s domestic intelligence service has accused a woman of chinese origin and working for the ruling Communist Party of China, according to authorities, of allegedly influencing members of Britain’s parliament.

The office of House Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said in a note issued to members of parliament on Thursday that MI5 had found out that the woman had been “engaged in political interference activities by the Chinese Communist Party.”

Hoyle’s letter added the Chinese national, whose whereabouts were unknown, had engaged with legislators and “facilitated financial donations to serving and aspiring Parliamentarians on behalf of foreign nationals based in Hong Kong and China”.

There was no immediate comment by the Chinese government.

Meanwhile MI5’s own interference alert, which was circulated to parliamentarians, said anyone contacted by the woman should be “mindful of her affiliation” and its “remit to advance the CCP’s agenda”.

A former leader of the UK’s governing Conservative Party, Ian Duncan Smith told Parliament on Thursday that the case was a “matter of grave concern”.

He demanded that the woman be deported and that the government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson make a statement to the Commons. Duncan Smith has been banned by China for exposing alleged human rights abuses in the country’s northwestern Xinjiang region.

Britain’s relations with China have deteriorated in recent years due to issues including tightening its grip on Hong Kong and the situation in Xinjiang, where Beijing has been accused of detaining at least one million Uighur muslims.

Last year, MI5 urged British citizens to be as vigilant about the threat of espionage from Russia, China and Iran as “terrorism”. British spies say China and Russia have tried to steal commercially sensitive data and intellectual property, as well as interfere in the country’s politics and spread misinformation.

In February last year, UK expelled three alleged Chinese spies, who MI5 said were posing as journalists but actually worked for China’s Ministry of State Security.

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