AFP — China on Monday accused Britain’s secret intelligence service (MI6) of recruiting a married couple working for the central government as spies for the UK, the latest in months of rife mutual espionage allegations between Beijing and the West.
China’s Ministry of State Security said in an official WeChat post that MI6 operatives had persuaded a man surnamed Wang, who held a “core confidential role” at a central state agency, to defect along with his wife, surnamed Zhou.
“Recently, after careful investigation, national security agencies have uncovered a major espionage case in which the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) encouraged a married couple, Wang and Zhou, employees of a Chinese central government agency, to defect,” the report said.
British spies began nurturing Wang after he began studying in Britain in 2015, arranging dinners and tours for him to understand his character weaknesses, interests and requirements, the ministry said.
According to the ministry, they found that Wang had a “strong desire for money” and asked him to provide high-cost consulting services related to the internal affairs of central government agencies.
The MI6 officer then revealed his identity to Wang and instructed him to return to China to gather more information, and persuaded him to coerce Zhou into doing the same.
The ministry said it had collected evidence and taken “decisive measures” against Wang, adding that the case was under further investigation.
The statement did not provide details about Wang and Zhou’s current occupations in China, the content of the information they provided, or their whereabouts.
AFP has contacted the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, which handles media enquiries for MI6, for comment.
China and Western countries have long accused each other of espionage but have only recently begun to disclose details of individual alleged cases.
British police said last month that Matthew Trickett, who had been charged with helping China’s semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong gather intelligence in Britain, had been found dead under unknown circumstances.
Also in April, German authorities arrested four people on suspicion of spying for China, while in the same week British police charged two men with passing classified information to Beijing between 2021 and last year.
