China has hit back at the UK after two men were convicted of conducting covert surveillance operations on Hong Kong dissidents in Britain, with Beijing’s Foreign Ministry insisting the prosecutions lacked any factual foundation and amounted to deliberate political interference.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China had “made its principled position clear on this case more than once,” accusing the UK of arresting and prosecuting Chinese nationals “without any factual basis” and of “abusing the law and judicial process” to secure the convictions.
He added that the case is “a typical political stunt” and said Beijing had “lodged serious protests against the UK.”
The strongly-worded statement came after a jury at London’s Old Bailey found ex-police superintendent Chung Biu “Bill” Yuen, 65, and Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 40, guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service — making them the first individuals ever convicted in the UK for spying on behalf of China.
Prosecutors told jurors that Yuen and Wai had been tasked with carrying out “shadow policing operations” for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and ultimately China. Their targets included Hong Kong dissidents and pro-democracy protesters living in Britain, with special attention also paid to senior politicians including former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith.
Beijing dismissed the entire case as baseless. Lin Jian said the UK was “blatantly endorsing those seeking to destabilize Hong Kong” and characterised the accusations as “nothing but groundless smears against China.”
He warned London to “rectify its wrongdoings, stop its political manipulation against China, stop emboldening the anti-China, destabilizing forces, and preserve the hard-won positive momentum in China-UK relations.”
Yuen was a retired Hong Kong police officer who worked at Hong Kong’s Economic and Trade Office in London, while Wai worked for the UK Border Force and also served as a volunteer officer for the City of London Police. Wai was separately convicted of misusing his Border Force position to search the Home Office’s computer database and access details of foreign nationals.
The pair’s alleged operations, which China strictly denies, coincided with Hong Kong authorities publishing bounties of around £100,000 for information helping to identify several UK-based activists.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis condemned the alleged operations as “an infringement of our sovereignty” and said the Chinese ambassador had been summoned to make clear that such activity “was, and will always be, unacceptable on UK soil.” He added that the convictions should send a clear message that there would be serious consequences for anyone seeking to undermine British security.
Yuen and Wai, both dual Chinese and British nationals, had denied all wrongdoing throughout the trial. They face up to 14 years in prison and are due to be sentenced at a later date.
Ewan is a reporter at the Foreign Policy Journal, primarily covering US current affairs and news related to NYSE-listed stocks. He has over two decades of experience in journalism and digital publishing.
