Chinese spies have been accused of posing as headhunters on LinkedIn to target MPs as part of a “widespread” operation to access information about the UK government, MI5 has warned.
The Security Service issued a new alert over Chinese espionage after it found that two recruiters were using online profiles to contact people working in Westminster on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS).
In a letter to MPs about the issue, Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said Chinese state actors were “relentless” in their attempts to “interfere with our processes and influence activity at parliament”.
He said that profiles under the names of Amanda Qiu and Shirly Shen were being “used to conduct outreach at scale” on behalf of China, while similar profiles were also acting as fronts for espionage.
Responding to the new alert, security minister Dan Jarvis said the government would not tolerate “covert and calculated” attempts by Beijing to interfere in the UK’s sovereign affairs, as he vowed to “disrupt, degrade and protect” against China’s “dangerous and unrestrained offensive cyber ecosystem”.
But Beijing’s embassy in the UK hit back, branding the allegations “a charade” and claiming that they are “pure fabrication and malicious slander”.
The allegations have reawoken serious concerns about the threat China poses to the UK, after the scandal surrounding the collapse of the trial of two men accused of spying for China, which led to days of questions about whether the government had intervened to undermine the prosecution of the pair, one a former parliamentary researcher and the other an academic.
The latest warning follows previous concerns around China’s influence in the UK. Previously, there was controversy over the Chinese company Huawei being allowed to build and control the UK’s 5G network, and there have also been arguments about whether to allow China to build UK nuclear reactors, and Chinese investment in British universities.
Ofcom withdrew the operating licence of CGTN (China Global Television Network) in 2021 following accusations that it was producing propaganda, and there have also been concerns about China stealing UK intellectual property.
Addressing the Commons on the LinkedIn allegations, Mr Jarvis said the government would “take all necessary measures to protect our national interests, our citizens and our democratic way of life”.
He said parliamentary staff, economists, think tank employees and government officials had all been targeted, as he warned that China has a “low threshold” for the sort of information that is useful, as it attempts to build a wider picture.
The latest effort follows the targeting of parliamentary emails in 2021, and attempted interference by Christine Lee, a lawyer accused by MI5 in 2022 of working for the Chinese government, Mr Jarvis told the Commons.
Sir Lindsay claimed that the Chinese MSS is “actively reaching out to individuals in our community”, warning that the ministry is seeking to “collect information and lay the groundwork for long-term relationships, using professional networking sites, recruitment agents and consultants acting on their behalf”.
Mr Jarvis announced plans to coordinate a new Counter Political Interference and Espionage Action Plan to disrupt and deter spying, which would see the intelligence services deliver security briefings for political parties and issue new guidance to election candidates to help them to recognise, resist and report suspicious activity.
The intelligence services will also work with professional networking sites to make them a more hostile operating environment for spies, while ministers will tighten rules on political donations through a new Elections Bill.
Some £170m will be invested in renewing the sovereign and encrypted technology that civil servants use to safeguard sensitive work, the government announced on Tuesday.
A further £130m will be put into boosting Counter Terrorism Policing’s ability to enforce the National Security Act, as well as funding the work of the National Cyber Security Centre and National Protective Security Authority with critical businesses to protect their intellectual property.
Mr Jarvis said the recently introduced Cyber Security and Resilience Bill would provide safeguards, and he did not rule out the use of sanctions as a penalty against those involved in spying.
But MPs also heard that China is the UK’s third-largest trading partner, as the minister said it is in the UK’s “long-term strategic interest” to trade and work with China on shared priorities, including the environment, research and crime.
It comes after the collapse in September of a case against two men accused of spying for China, which sparked a row over Britain’s links with Beijing.
In April 2024, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry were charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) with spying under the provisions of the Official Secrets Act. They were accused of collecting and communicating information that could be “useful to an enemy”. Both denied the charges.
But in September this year, the CPS said the case could not progress because the government’s deputy national security adviser, Matt Collins, was unwilling to classify China as an active threat to national security – raising questions about Britain’s willingness to confront China as Sir Keir Starmer’s government looks to build closer ties with Beijing.
In the wake of the collapse of the trial, there were growing calls for China to be classed as an enhanced-tier threat within the government’s Foreign Influence Registration Scheme.
The scheme is designed to give Britain better tools to counter threats from hostile states, but currently only Russia and Iran have been designated as presenting a particular risk on the “enhanced tier” – which requires those working on a state’s behalf to declare any relevant activity.
Tory MP Alicia Kearns, who previously employed Mr Cash as a parliamentary researcher, wrote to ministers to urge them to put China on the enhanced tier, while the Liberal Democrats said the higher tier has a “China-shaped hole”.
Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, Mr Jarvis said: “We are looking closely at whether it is necessary to make further additions to the enhanced tier, but I can say to [Ms Kearns] that no decision has yet been made.”
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