China on Monday said it has detained a foreign national accused of spying on Beijing for Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service known as the MI6. File Photo by Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA
Jan. 8 (UPI) — China on Monday said it has uncovered a British espionage plot involving a foreign national who used their position as the head of an overseas consulting agency to steal state secrets for London’s Secret Intelligence Service.
Beijing’s top spy agency, the Ministry of State Security, accused Britain in a statement published on its official WeChat account on Monday of having instructed the foreign national, who was identified only by their surname Huang, to enter the Asian nation multiple times and to use their public identity as a cover to collect China-related intelligence.
The agency said MI6 developed a “intelligence cooperation relationship” with the suspect in 2015. It said Huang received professional intelligence training from Britain and was equipped with “special spying equipment for intelligence cross-linking.”
The ministry said Huang told Chinese agents that they had provided MI6 with nine confidential-level national secrets, five secret-level national secrets and three pieces of undefined intelligence.
“After careful investigation, the national security agency promptly discovered criminal evidence that Huang was engaged in espionage activities, and took criminal coercive measures against him,” it said, adding that it has arranged consular visits for Huang and was protecting their legal rights.
The announcement by China is expected to heighten already high tensions between the two countries, as London has also accused Beijing of spying on it.
In September, Britain announced that it had arrested two people, including a researcher in its parliament, on suspicion of spying for China — an accusation that China rejected as “groundless.”
“China firmly opposes that,” Foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a regular press conference after Britain raised the allegation.
“We urge the U.K. to stop spreading disinformation and stop political manipulation and malicious slander against China.”
The announcement also comes in the wake of China cracking down on foreign consulting agencies, including raiding the Beijing offices of U.S. due diligence firm Mintz Group in March and questioning staff of U.S. consultancy agency Bain & Co. in April.