A surprising contact on the professional network. An offer of work from a headhunter, probably a female agent, based in China. The opportunity to earn around £20,000 part-time preparing a handful of political analyses for a Chinese company peppered with confidential or “insider” insights. Payment in digital currency or cash preferred.
It might appear obvious, in this scenario, that something about this approach would be suspicious. However, China’s powerful intelligence agency continues to view it worthwhile to deploy recruitment consultants to attempt this – leading MI5 to warn repeatedly about their operations online.
Massive Contact Attempts on Professional Networks
Last year, the head of MI5 the agency's director stated operatives from China were approaching UK citizens on the platform on an unprecedented scale, at a rate of 10,000 over the preceding two and a half years, seeking political, commercial, military and scientific classified information. However a new initiative aimed at elected officials and Westminster has led the spy agency to take further action.
An espionage alert was issued on Tuesday via the administrative teams of the Commons speaker and his Lords equivalent: a single slide after the repeated efforts of certain individuals and other operatives to contact Members of Parliament, lords, their staffers, economists, research organizations – anybody who might become a source.
Security Approach and Legislative Updates
In the typical manner of UK security services, there was no official release of the security advice from MI5 or the interior ministry. But the agency was aware its briefing note would leak once it was emailed out to parliament. Republishing it in the press helps the wider public better identify interactions with a deceptive intent.
This warning has the impact of uncovering additional details from in and around Westminster, though that is not the agency's primary purpose. The agency aims for public figures to understand that just because interactions on professional networks are not as toxic as on other social platforms, it does not mean they are completely safe.
Additionally, the domestic spy agency understood to have been reacting to a particular event in parliament, though the burst of activity occur after the awkward failure of the legal case of a former parliamentary aide Christopher Cash and his friend Christopher Berry on a legal detail in recent months.
Both individuals had been accused of spying for China – a allegation they rejected – but inability to complete a prosecution under the now repealed Official Secrets Act led to concerns that British democracy had been left unprotected.
Revised Laws and China's Strategic Interests
Legislation has since been updated, and the MI5 slide contains a note of its successor: “Individuals involved in spying operations risk significant legal consequences under the new security law.” It is a crime if a person engages in conduct that is or is likely to “materially assist a overseas spy agency”.
An obvious question, though, is what Beijing has to achieve. An elected representative who is not a government minister will have limited access of sensitive information, and an associate of theirs less so. Yet the Chinese government is also interested in parliament: for a time, in recent years, the UK’s China policy on matters such as the telecom firm or the Uyghur repression or genocide was being driven by parliamentarians.
Cultural Differences and Persistent Digital Threats
To a degree there are distinct approaches as well. Autocratic regimes like Beijing's export intelligence collection methods and the size of its spy network is vast, engaging 300,000 individuals. Chris Inglis, a US national cyber director under president Joe Biden, commented it was occasionally assessed that “the Chinese have greater linguistic capacity involved in this than we [western intelligence] have English speakers”.
Beijing is willing to cultivate contacts over the long term and sometimes even the agencies have found it difficult to distinguish between genuine connections and espionage. “China has a low threshold for which details is deemed to be useful,” security minister Dan Jarvis told parliamentarians on Wednesday, but a sudden turn in the government situation may result in an individual rapidly marginal turning important.
Another way to think about the continuous activities at secret information gathering is in the broader framework of the geopolitical contest between China and the west at a level below the level of outright war. China has stepped up its cyber operations, with the one campaign penetration of communications systems in 80 countries, and the another operation compromise of countless connected equipment.
Beijing is engaged in persistent attempts to identify covert sources on British democracy online because it seeks to be challenging, to demonstrate influence and because it has the capability.
