UK's arrest of suspected spy fuels calls for tougher stance on China
China's foreign influence operations, it would represent a sensational case of infiltration.
A 28-year-old British man who worked as a researcher deep inside Britain's Parliament was arrested in March on suspicion of working for the Chinese government. The man, who denies being a spy, worked with prominent lawmakers on China policy, raising fears of possible security breaches and widening a rift within the governing Conservative Party over how London should engage with an increasingly assertive Beijing.
«The Chinese are infiltrating across the board; they go for anything and everything,» said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London.
«What is new is how effective they are, and how far they have managed to go.»
The Metropolitan Police said two men were arrested under the Official Secrets Act and were released on bail until October. The men, whose identities were not released by police, have not been charged, and lawmakers were asked not to prejudice the investigation by naming them.
(News organizations have also not done so, aside from The Sunday Times, which first reported the news of the researcher's arrest Saturday and has since named him.) Little has been disclosed about the second man, except that he is reported to be in his 30s.
In a statement through a law firm Monday, the researcher said that he was «completely innocent» and had spent his career «trying to educate others about the challenge and threats presented by the Chinese Communist Party.»
If the man is found to have worked for China, the security breach will raise serious questions over how he passed the vetting process to get a job at the heart of one of the most sensitive policy debates in Britain. The man had earlier lived and worked in
