‘Espionage’ in the UK: State of the nation

LONDON: The situation between the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and No10 over whether or not Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry were spies for Chinese Communist Party continues to consume the headlines and the public interest.

The pair met in 2015 whilst teaching for the British Council in Hangzhou; both deny the charge under the Official Secrets Act 1911. Berry remained teaching in various posts In China and Cash moved to Westminster as lead parliamentary researcher for the China Research Group, a Tory grouping of MPs of that time chaired by Tom Tugendhat, with a committee which consisted of Dehenna Davison, Anthony Browne, Laura Trott, Kevin Hollinrake, Alicia Kearns, Andrew Bowie and Damian Green. The allegations centre around Cash allegedly supplying useful information to Berry that may have found its way into reports that may have been useful to Cai Chi, thought to be President Xi’s Chief of Staff.

The trial imploded last week when it seems there was not enough evidence from Matthew Collins, the Deputy National Security advisor, to provide Stephen Parkinson, Chief Prosecutor, with, that in 2023 China was a threat to UK national security.

Curiously a quick search finds that in 2020 the new head of MI5 Ken McCallum told Sky News that China not Russia is the biggest long-term threat to British security. In Boris Johnson's Integrated Review 2021 China was cited as China's willing to use all the levers of state power to achieve a dominant role in global affairs and called both a systemic challenge and a systemic competitor, furthermore "China also presents the biggest state-based threat to the UK's economic security". Also in 2021 MI6 chief Richard Moore accused China of conducting "large-scale espionage operations against the UK and our allies" and he said countries globally should be clear-eyed when dealing with Beijing because of the potential to fall into a debt trap or to have data on their population exploited.

In Rishi Sunak's Integrated Review Refresh of 2023 it cited China as posing an epoch-defining challenge, and China's deepening partnership with Russia and Russia's growing cooperation with Iran in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine being two developments of particular concern. And the 2023 UK Procurement Act mandates the removal from sensitive government sites of surveillance equipment supplied by companies subject to the national Intelligence Law of China. The 2023 Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament report on China states that China is a "whole-of-state" threat and has ambition at a global level to become a technological and economic superpower, on which other countries are reliant that poses a national security threat to the UK.

There a multiple credible examples but it seem that Labour only recognise examples from 2024 onwards and these do not count, thus it is convenient to blame the previous Conservative government for not specifically designating China as a threat. There is much speculation that National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell briefed Collins on the evidence to be presented, which appears to be favourable to Beijing and business. Was PM Starmer in the loop, who knew what when, could the CPS have requested further evidence, with all the procrastination, with back and forth blame... more scrutiny is expected.

Collins witness statements have been reluctantly published but are being challenged by legary media and by Substack authors including Dominic Cummings who claims that "threat" does not even cover the risks posed by China. UK have had Chinese spies before, Labour seem to have a memory lapse about Christine Lee grooming Barry Gardiner in 2022 which MI5 assessed as China was trying to progress a new generation of political candidates in a "seeding operation", without naming Individuals security sources said there were a handful of candidates across all major parties. This week it has been revealed that the US Department of Justice convicted/indicted 150 individuals as Chinese spies while the CPS just drops what prima facie looks like a significant case.

In an unprecedented intervention John Moolenaar, Chair of the US Select Committee on the CCP, wrote to the British Embassy Charge d'Affairs informing that if the espionage charges were not properly reinstated and the case concluded transparently, the British government risks setting "a dangerous precedent that foreign adversaries can target democratically elected legislators with impunity". What concerns the Select Committee is if information concerning them has been compromised, which would have repercussions for the Five Eyes.

Tim Shipman for the Spectator and Dominic Cummings writes in The Times about past and present catastrophic data breaches in the Ministry of Defence and 10 Downing Street, some attributable to very out of date software still used in Whitehall and routers which are easy for hackers to penetrate.

In UK's national Cyber Security Centre, a part of GCHQ, has revealed that the cyber threats facing the UK continue to escalate. The NCSC dealt with 204 nationally significant cyber attacks against the UK in the 12 months to August 2025, a sharp rise from 89 in the previous year. 18 were classified as highly significant incidents; these represent an even more serious threat, often requiring a coordinated cross-government response due to their potential to cause widespread disruption or long-term damage to national interests.

The NCSC issued the following advisory in September 2025: "Countering Chinese State-Sponsored Actors Compromise of Networks Worldwide to Feed Global Espionage System Executive: People's Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored cyber threat actors are targeting networks globally, including, but not limited to, telecommunications, government, transportation, lodging, and military infrastructure networks. While these actors focus on large backbone routers of major telecommunications providers, as well as provider edge and customer edge routers, they also leverage compromised devices and trusted connections to pivot into other networks. These actors often modify routers to maintain persistent, long-term access to networks..." The warning could not be starker, the public need to know what they are facing, governance, supply chains and markets have to adapt; Donald Trump and Narendra Modi have the right idea, be protectionist about your national security.