China has accused the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) of recruiting Chinese state employees as spies. In a recent post on its official WeChat channel, China’s Ministry of State Security claimed that MI6 operatives turned a Chinese man, identified by his surname Wang, and his wife, surnamed Zhou, against Beijing. Both individuals worked in “core confidential” departments of a Chinese state agency.
The ministry alleged that MI6 began cultivating Mr. Wang when he went to the UK for his studies in 2015 as part of a Sino-British exchange program. During his time in the UK, MI6 operatives reportedly took “special care” of Mr. Wang, inviting him to dinners and tours to better “understand his interests and weaknesses.”
This accusation comes just over a month after the UK charged two men with spying for China. UK police have accused these individuals of providing “articles, notes, documents, or information” to a foreign state, while China has called the allegations “malicious slander.”
Earlier this month, a former Royal Marine charged with assisting the Hong Kong intelligence service was found dead, according to police.
Espionage accusations have been increasingly traded between Beijing and several Western countries. In the case of Mr. Wang, Chinese authorities claimed that MI6 operatives exploited his “strong desire for money,” befriending him on campus under the guise of being alumni and engaging him in “paid consulting services.”
After a period of time, and upon assessing that “the conditions were ripe,” the operatives allegedly asked Mr. Wang to serve the British government in exchange for better remuneration and offers of security. The ministry claimed that through Mr. Wang, MI6 operatives also recruited Ms. Zhou.
“Wang was initially hesitant but could not resist [the operatives’] repeated persuasion, enticement, and even coercion, and eventually agreed,” the ministry stated on WeChat. “Under Wang’s strong instigation, Zhou agreed to collect intelligenceā¦ and he and his wife became British spies.”
The ministry added that the case is still under investigation.
China’s Ministry of State Security has been posting frequent updates on its official channel since its launch in August. In January, it warned citizens against “exotic beauties” seeking to lure them into the hands of foreign spy agencies. It has also cautioned citizens against photographing military equipment and warned against organizations “recruiting aviation enthusiasts as volunteers” to transmit China’s flight data to other countries.
