Exclusive: Three Chinese spies posing as journalists expelled from the UK

 The revelation comes amid concerns in Government about Chinese economic espionage and intellectual property theft from UK institutions

ByLucy Fisher, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR4 February 2021 • 9:30pm

A senior Whitehall source confirmed that the three spies each purported to 'work for three different Chinese media agencies' which have not been named CREDIT: PA

Three Chinese spies who falsely posed as journalists have been expelled from Britain in the past year, The Telegraph can reveal.

The trio are understood to be intelligence officers for Beijing’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) and arrived in the country on journalism visas under the fake pretext of working in the media.

A senior Whitehall source confirmed that the three spies each purported to “work for three different Chinese media agencies”, which have not been named, and that they “all set foot in the UK” in the past 12 months.

Their true identities were uncovered by MI5 and they have since been forced to return to China. It is thought likely that the Chinese media companies were integral to their cover stories were complicit in these plots.

The Chinese Embassy has been contacted for comment. 

The revelation comes amid growing concerns in Government about Chinese economic espionage and intellectual property theft from British universities and companies.

Downing Street is expected to introduce new legislation to tighten and update current laws on spying and the Official Secrets Act in the next parliamentary session, due to begin in May.

Proposals are being examined for a US-style Foreign Agents Registration Act, which would force lobbyists who work on behalf of foreign governments to register or face sanctions including jail and deportation.

This would aim to outlaw acts of malign interference and influence by foreign states that do not currently meet the threshold of illegality.

The Government is looking at tabling a single “mega Bill” on national security to encompass all these elements, according to sources.

British officials said it was common for Chinese intelligence officers working undercover and undeclared in the West to use the pretence of media work as a cloak for their true activities.

Last year, Fraser Cameron, a former MI6 intelligence officer, was accused of selling secrets to two Belgium-based Chinese spies who were accredited in Brussels as journalists.

Reports quoted Belgian security service sources saying the Chinese nationals worked for the MSS and the Chinese military.

Mr Cameron denied the allegations against him and said they were “without foundation”.

The MSS is China’s civilian intelligence and political security agency. It is a well-resourced agency and was established in 1983 as a merger of the units previously responsible for foreign intelligence, economic espionage, counterintelligence, political security and influence work, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank.

The revelation that three Beijing operatives posing as journalists have been expelled from Britain comes after Ofcom on Thursday revoked the UK licence of the Chinese state-owned broadcaster CGTN.

The broadcasting regulator found the English-language satellite news channel was not under the editorial control of its licence holder, breaching a requirement under British law.

Chinese President Xi Jinping of China, seen on a programme from the CGTN archive, as it plays on a computer monitor. Ofcom claims that Star China Media Limited (who owns the licence for China Global Television Network) doesn't have day-to-day editorial control over the channel CREDIT:  (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)/ (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

An application to transfer this licence to a new entity was rejected on the grounds that it would ultimately fall under the control of the Chinese Community Party. The Ofcom rules ban broadcasters from being controlled by political bodies.

While CGTN will no longer be permitted to air programmes in Britain, it may continue to exist as a media company. Its employees are permitted to continue to live and work in the UK subject to the conditions of their visas, it is understood.

Julian Knight, Tory chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, welcomed the watchdog’s decision to revoke its licence.

"The ruling is confirmation that the Chinese Communist Party is the ultimate controller of its broadcasts which is not permitted under UK law," he said.

"CGTN had already breached broadcasting codes with a forced confession, and failure on impartiality over coverage of the Hong Kong protests."

In a statement on Friday, CGTN said Ofcom's investigation was "manipulated by extreme right-wing organisations and anti-China forces".

In a separate decision last May, Ofcom found CGTN in “serious failure of compliance” by presenting biased coverage of pro-democracy protests that swept Hong Kong in 2019.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/02/04/three-chinese-spies-posing-journalists-expelled-uk/

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Special report: Trump's U.S.-China transformation

 President Trump began his term by launching the trade war with China he had promised on the campaign trail. By mid-2020, however, Trump was no longer the public face of China policy-making as he became increasingly consumed with domestic troubles, giving his top aides carte blanche to pursue a cascade of tough-on-China policies.

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian

Jan 19, 2021 -World

Why it matters: Trump alone did not reshape the China relationship. But his trade war shattered global norms, paving the way for administration officials to pursue policies that just a few years earlier would have been unthinkable.

• Trump-era China policy often featured two separate tracks: policies Trump personally led, and policies spearheaded by officials with China expertise.
• In some cases, Trump's own actions worked against the stated objectives of his China-focused national security staff — most notably Trump's disparaging attitude toward allies and his prioritizing of trade negotiations over sanctions.

Here's a timeline of the evolution of U.S. policy toward China under Trump:

Late 2016: A surprising election result leaves many guessing what turn U.S.-China relations might take. Initially, there are concerns that, despite his tough campaign rhetoric regarding China's trade practices, President Trump might cozy up to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

• But an early December 2016 phone call between the president-elect and Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen — the first such direct contact between the top U.S. and Taiwanese leaders since at least 1979 — swiftly reformulates expectations and foreshadows the Trump administration's diplomatic iconoclasm.

2017: A trade war and little else. As promised, Trump levies tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese goods, sparking a trade war that stretches on for most of Trump's presidency.

2018: A whole-of-government approach begins to take shape.

• The National Security Strategy's Indo-Pacific framework is approved in early 2018, and a Trump-era China strategy begins to emerge.
• U.S. Pacific Command changes its name to Indo-Pacific Command in a move seen as aimed at countering China's rise.
• The Department of Justice launches its China Initiative, an effort to disrupt China's covert activities in the U.S.

2019: The U.S. gets tougher, with some guardrails.

• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo becomes a leading figure in the U.S. push against China, publicly accusing the Chinese Communist Party of seeking "international domination."
• Trump's desire to seal a trade deal with China, however, prevented administration officials from pursuing sanctions on Chinese officials deemed complicit in human rights abuses.

2020: All bets are off. The year reshapes many aspects of the U.S.-China relationship.

• After years of tariffs and negotiations, the Phase One trade deal is signed in January, giving President Trump a PR-ready "win."
• But after the coronavirus outbreak, Trump embraces blaming China as a way to deflect the blame from his own administration's failures to effectively address the rising number of cases stateside. His racially tinged invocation of the "China virus" exacerbates anti-Chinese racism, as attacks against Asian Americans rise around the country.
• With a trade deal signed and a new grudge against China, Trump lifts the floodgates, allowing staff across agencies to push through long-desired actions on China-related issues across the board.
• With Trump conspicuously absent from China policy-making, Pompeo becomes the public face of America's China policy.

By the numbers: 2020's whole-of-government approach

Photo Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Alex Wong/Getty Images and Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

In 2020, the Trump administration took at least 210 public actions related to China that spanned at least 10 departments, according to publicly available data, demonstrating what the administration calls a "whole-of-government" strategy.

Why it matters: The full impact of such an enormous number of actions taken in such a short period of time has not yet been felt — leaving the Biden administration with the huge task of sorting through these new policies.

• 22 actions by the Justice Department, including indictments and arrests.
• 60 actions by the State Department, including visa restrictions, travel advisories, diplomatic actions and public statements.
• 27 actions by the White House, including executive orders, signing bills into laws and the signing of the Phase One trade agreement.
• 23 actions by the Defense Department, including freedom of navigation operations, Taiwan Strait transits, and the release of reports and other information.

• 16 actions by the Department of Homeland Security, including blocking the import of items made through forced labor and the release of reports and statements.
• 24 actions by the Treasury Department, including sanctions.
• 13 actions by the Commerce Department, including export controls, additions to the entities list and advisories.
• 3 actions by the U.S. Trade Representative's office, including the release of reports and a public statement.
• 2 actions by the Energy Department, including designating China as a "foreign adversary."
• 2 actions by the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
• 6 actions by the Federal Communications Commission, including designating Huawei and ZTE as national security threats.
• 1 action by the Agriculture Department, an interim report on agricultural trade with China.
• 1 action by the National Security Agency, a cybersecurity advisory regarding China-linked cyber actors.
• 1 action by the Education Department, a letter sent to university officials regarding Confucius Institutes.
• 2 actions by the Labor Department, including a letter and a list of goods made with forced labor.

Some actions have been criticized as counterproductive and damaging to U.S. values, such as restrictions placed on Chinese journalists and the U.S. withdrawal from the World Health Organization, in part due to China's influence over the organization.

In 2020, the Trump administration also levied sanctions on 90 Chinese entities or individuals, comprising 11.5% of total U.S. sanctions designations last year, according to data compiled by the Center for a New American Security.

What they're saying

A senior administration official with knowledge of the Trump administration's China strategy told me that China's coercive economic practices and the unique threats it posed to U.S. national security interests and values required new thinking:

• "The U.S. had to step out in front and take some actions that were perceived as extreme. It’s not establishment Washington thinking."

The results: "I think we were proved to be correct in many ways. You can impose economic costs on China without the world falling apart. China has been extremely restrained in its retaliation. The U.S. as the world’s largest economy had to take the lead and show that the world isn’t going to end."

Looking to the Biden administration: "I think this is good momentum for the next team to come in," said the official.

https://www.axios.com/2021/01/19/trump-china-policy-special-report