Relations between China and the UK are tense. Britain accused China of espionage after two people were arrested. One of them is said to have had contact with the ruling Conservative Party. China itself strongly denies this.
What exactly the spying allegations are is still unknown, according to British correspondent Lia van Bekhoven. It is clear that these suspects include a suspect who served on the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, and therefore had access to the British Parliament. ‘He also hosted drinks and parties for MPs about China, and was active on a dating site where he tried to contact a political reporter.’
‘He tried on a dating site to contact a political reporter’
Even though the Sunday newspaper only published the news yesterday, Van Bekhoven emphasized that the affair had been going on for quite some time. The suspects were reportedly arrested in March and will appear in court in October.
Danger?
The suspects themselves strongly denied this, but even though they were found guilty of espionage, Van Bekhoven did not consider sensitive information to have been confiscated. “To get that confidential information, you have to be examined,” he explained. “Intelligence agencies are responsible for this. Only after approval will a permit be issued to grant access, and the suspect did not have any permit.’
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Little is known so far about the suspects’ backgrounds, although Van Bekhoven said they were both graduates of Chinese science and global international politics. ‘That’s also the reason why at least one suspect was able to get a job as an investigator quite easily – he got a good education at a good school.’
Chinese relations
Van Bekhoven also did not expect the alleged espionage scandal to cause major problems for relations between China and the UK. Although British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak demanded that ‘China must stop interfering’, he called a diplomatic crisis ‘unlikely’. ‘Britain is of course worried about Chinese interference, but they are not the only Western government to have a problem with it.’
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