The UK government has firmly denied any involvement in the collapse of a controversial case in which two British men, accused of spying for China, allegedly passed intelligence to a top aide of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Christopher Cash, a former aide to two Conservative MPs, and his friend Christopher Berry, were accused of gathering and sharing information with China between December 2021 and February 2023.
They were charged under the Official Secrets Act (1911), which requires proof that a defendant is guilty of spying if they pass on information that would be “directly or indirectly useful to an enemy.”
Multiple UK media outlets reported last week that government ministers asked a key civil service witness not to define China as an “enemy” of the UK in court. Consequently, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) determined it lacked sufficient evidence and dropped the case on Sept. 15.
Suspected Connection to CCP Politburo
The CPS said in April last year that a “senior member of the Chinese Communist Party and a Politburo member” had received “politically sensitive information” from the two British men, The Guardian reported.That person was identified as Cai Qi. As a close ally and protégé of Xi, Cai is one of the most influential figures in China–the fifth-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s top decision-making body, which consists of seven members and is led by Xi.
According to CPS’s allegation, between December 2021 and February 2023, Berry and Cash submitted at least 34 reports to “a Chinese intelligence agent.” The CPS believed that information was passed on to Cai.
Strong Backlash in Parliament
The drop in charges has prompted a furious reaction in Westminster.The Speaker of the Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, warned that “Chinese spies have been given a licence to operate in parliament” after the charges were dropped.
The decision happened before the UK held its first trade talks with China in seven years, when Peter Kyle, the business secretary, travelled to Beijing.
In July 2022, Ken McCallum, MI5's director general, described the threat from the CCP as "game-changing." A year later, he highlighted the "epic scale" of Chinese spying efforts, disclosing that Chinese agents had secretly contacted over 20,000 individuals in the UK through online channels.
In December, UK judges affirmed MI5's action in alerting officials that Christine Lee, purportedly a Chinese spy, had penetrated Parliament and provided financial support to a Labour MP as well as others.
That same month, authorities identified Yang Tengbo, a Chinese entrepreneur, as having been barred from entering the UK on suspicion of espionage activities.
NTD has reached out to the Chinese Embassy in London for comment.