cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/5697622

Archived version

Chinese intelligence officers attempted to recruit “thousands” of people linked to Westminster in a vast online operation that specifically targeted the “weak underbelly of parliament”, Whitehall sources have said.

Officials believe the agents used two recruitment “headhunters”, Amanda Qiu and Shirly Shen, to contact parliamentary staff, advisers and policy specialists as part of a “scattergun” effort o identify people with access to sensitive political information. The pair were highlighted, sources said, because they were allegedly the most prolific among a wider group of Chinese intelligence assets still operating.

“They kissed a lot of frogs,” one Whitehall source said. “This was a widespread scattergun targeting. They certainly sent out thousands of approaches. Some of it was dismissed as spam but it was an effort spread far and wide. They only need one out of hundreds to respond; that’s a win for them.”

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MI5 told MPs and peers that China was offering “large financial incentives for seemingly low-level information” as a way of building relationships and encouraging targets to provide “non-public sensitive information”. Those approached included advisers to former Conservative ministers, including an ex-chancellor, advisers to Labour ministers, officials and researchers at several think tanks, among them the Tony Blair Institute.

The agency said China was attempting to “cultivate” people who were “one step removed” from high-priority parliamentary figures, and urged MPs to be wary of “unusual questions” from colleagues or contacts that might indicate intelligence-gathering.

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Ordinary Britons should also be cautious about unsolicited online contact from potential Chinese intelligence operatives, the defence minister said.

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In a letter to MPs, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons speaker, said it was of the “utmost importance” that everyone working in parliament understood “how this activity happens and how to protect ourselves against it”. Chinese state entities, he said, were “relentless” in seeking to influence Westminster.

Qiu, chief executive of BR-YR Executive Search, and Shen, co-founder of the Internship Union, have been identified by MI5 as operating LinkedIn accounts used by the Ministry of State Security to “conduct outreach at scale”. Officials believe the pair were specifically tasked with approaching people working in parliament, while other Chinese operatives are deployed against academics, the military, scientific institutions and private industry.

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Among those contacted was a staff member in the office of Neil O’Brien, the Conservative MP and head of policy for Kemi Badenoch, who has been sanctioned by Beijing. The aide received a message from Shen offering remote consultancy work and praising them as an “excellent candidate”. James Price, a former special adviser to Nadhim Zahawi when he was chancellor, received a similar unsolicited approach framed as a “professional headhunting” opportunity. Both ignored the messages.

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In September the case collapsed against two men accused of spying for China, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, in which prosecutors alleged they had passed information to Beijing. The pair deny wrongdoing.

The National Protective Security Authority, part of MI5, said last month that Chinese agents were posting fake job adverts online to lure British professionals into handing over secret material. Thousands had already been identified.

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