Alleged Espionage: Chinese Government accuses married couple employed in State roles of spying for UK's MI6

The Chinese Government has alleged espionage activities, claiming that a married couple employed in significant State roles were involved in spying for the UK’s MI6 intelligence service.

Lusaka, June 6 – On Monday, China leveled accusations against Britain, alleging that it recruited a married couple working for the Chinese central government to conduct espionage for its MI6 intelligence service, amidst a backdrop of mutual espionage allegations between the two nations.

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According to an announcement by China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), they have disclosed a significant espionage incident involving MI6, revealing the identification of two key informants “inserted by the British side” within their organization.

Under Xi Jinping, the country’s notoriously secretive spy agency has drastically raised its public profile and broadened its remit. From a shadowy organization without any discernable public face, the MSS has been transformed into a highly visible presence in public life.

Over the last six months the MSS has made regular public declarations of dismantling foreign spying operations, claims which are impossible to verify given their nature but paint the agency in a positive light and provide regular reminders to Chinese citizens to be wary.

In its latest statement Monday, the MSS detailed its allegations against the married couple. It said an alleged spy, identified by his surname Wang, was working at a position “with access to core confidential information” in an unnamed central state organ.

In 2015, Wang’s application to study in the UK under an exchange program was “swiftly approved” because MI6 valued his access, according to the MSS. While studying in Britain, Wang was allegedly invited to meals and tours arranged by MI6 to understand his “character weaknesses and personal interests,” MSS said.

After finding out Wang had “a strong desire for money,” the British spy agency used an alumnus to lure him into a part-time consulting opportunity with high remuneration, MSS said.

“The British side started with open research projects and gradually moved into core internal matters of our central state agencies, paying him a fee significantly higher than normal consulting rates. Although Wang was somewhat wary of this, he continued to provide so-called ‘consulting’ services to the British side under the lure of large sums of money,” the MSS statement said.

After a while, MI6 personnel approached Wang to work for the British government with promises of higher monetary rewards and security guarantees, the MSS alleged. Wang allegedly agreed to the terms and received espionage training before he was told to return to China to gather intelligence, the statement said.

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The MSS claimed MI6 also repeatedly urged Wang to persuade his wife – who worked at a “core” government agency – to join the espionage, offering to double the money. Despite his initial hesitation, Wang and his wife, surnamed Zhou, eventually agreed, MSS alleged.

In August last year, the MSS made its social media debut: it launched an official account on WeChat, China’s most popular social app, with a rallying call for “all members of society” to join its fight against foreign infiltration. Its posts regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views and are widely shared by state media outlets.

According to the MSS, foreign spies are omnipresent and infiltrating everything – from mapping apps to weather stations. The ministry has previously posted details of what it claims are espionage activities carried out by Western spy agencies, and detailed how Chinese nationals studying or working abroad have allegedly been recruited by the CIA.

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