Chinese espionage is targeting UK democratic institutions, Home Office Security Minister Dan Jarvis told the House of Commons in a statement on November 18. He related that MI5 issued an espionage alert to members of parliament, peers and parliamentary staff to warn them about ‘ongoing targeting of our democratic institutions by Chinese actors’.
Jarvis said that economists, think-tank employees, geopolitical consultants and Government officials have all been targeted for their networks and access to politicians. He urged parliamentarians and their staff to be wary that China has a low threshold for what information is considered to be of value, and will gather individual pieces of information to build a wider picture. He went on: “Let me speak plainly: this activity involves a covert and calculated attempt by a foreign power to interfere with our sovereign affairs in favour of its own interests, and this Government will not tolerate it.”
Response
As for the Government’s response, he said that Labour was bringing in an Elections Bill, which will include measures against covert political funding, risk assessment rules for donor recipients, ‘and enhanced enforcement powers for the Electoral Commission’. The Government is also working on new powers to counter foreign interference. He announced protective security campaigns, co-ordinated through the ‘defending democracy taskforce’, for those who work in politics to recognise, resist and report suspicious state threat activity. Guidance was launched by the UK official National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) in October. The devolved Governments and political parties will have ‘tailored security briefings’ by the end of this year, and candidates for devolved and local elections in May will get new security guidance in January.
NPSA
The NPSA already runs a “Think Before You Link” campaign, advising people on professional social media sites such as LinkedIn to beware of offers from contacts that seem too good to be true. Jarvis said that the NPSA ‘will strengthen its engagement with professional networking sites to make them a more hostile operating environment for foreign agents’. Jarvis spoke also of investment to ‘build Counter Terrorism Policing’s ability to enforce the National Security Act 2023, and fund the National Cyber Security Centre and the National Protective Security Authority’s work supporting our most critical businesses in protecting their intellectual property’.
Unis
For the university sector, which relies greatly on income from overseas students, Jarvis said that ministers will host a closed event with vice-chancellors to discuss the risks posed by foreign interference; and he pointed to official ‘economic security advisory service’, for businesses to ‘navigate economic security issues, such as espionage and intellectual property theft’. He quoted the recently introduced Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill, ‘which will help make it harder to target critical sectors of the economy and the public sector with cyber-attacks’.
Reply
Replying for the Conservative Opposition, Alicia Kearns called for ‘a comprehensive audit of our vulnerabilities across our society and our economy’. For the full debate in the Commons, see the Hansard website. See also the equivalent debate in the House of Lords.
Comment
Anna Webb, Head of Global Security Operations at the managed IT services firm Kocho, said: ‘MI5’s alert confirms what many have feared – Chinese state espionage against the UK is systematic and focused on people who hold influence rather than just classified files. The use of LinkedIn and apparently legitimate head-hunters to cultivate contacts in Westminster and the private sector shows how easily routine professional networking can become an intelligence channel.
‘Make no mistake – this activity is a real threat to national security. Intelligence gathered in this way could ultimately be used not just to gain strategic advantage but also to compromise critical national infrastructure. The news that the Government is planning to invest £170 million in renewing the encrypted technology civil servants use to safeguard their sensitive work and is also looking to put money behind a counter-interference plan is a step in the right direction.
‘However, more must be done through tighter legislation. There should be greater transparency around political donations and mandatory security training for anyone with access to sensitive insights. This doesn’t just impact Whitehall and the intelligence services. Every organisation connected to government or regulated sectors needs to assume it is a target, tighten its data access controls, and treat foreign state activity as a board-level risk.’
