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Chinese state operatives pose a “daily national security threat” to the United Kingdom, according to remarks made by MI5 Director General Sir Ken McCallum.
In a recent speech, Sir Ken revealed that MI5 had operationally intervened in the past week to disrupt Chinese activities deemed a national security concern.
Addressing the controversy surrounding the collapse of a case involving alleged espionage on behalf of China in the UK, Sir Ken stated that MI5 had disrupted the alleged activity and expressed frustration when prosecutions are unsuccessful.
The government and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) are facing scrutiny over the handling of the collapsed case.
The CPS withdrew the case last month, citing a lack of evidence demonstrating China’s threat to national security.
However, witness statements from Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Collins, released late on Wednesday, assert that China is actively engaged in espionage against the UK, raising questions about the government’s and CPS’s rationale for not proceeding with the prosecution.
In the documents, Collins characterized China as carrying out “large scale espionage” against the UK and identified it as “the biggest state-based threat to the country’s economic security.”
Sir Ken described Mr. Collins as “a man of high integrity and a professional of considerable quality.”
In his address, Sir Ken acknowledged that “Chinese state actors” present a threat to UK national security but noted that the “overall balance” of the UK’s relationship with China is “a matter for the government.”
“When it comes to China, the UK needs to defend itself resolutely against threats and seize the opportunities that demonstrably serve our nation,” he stated.
The Conservative Party has accused the government of allowing the espionage case to collapse in order to avoid jeopardizing economic relations with China.
Downing Street has countered that it would have been “absurd” for the Prime Minister to intervene after being informed of the case’s impending collapse, emphasizing that it was a “criminal matter” for the CPS to handle independently.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch asserted that the events leave “a strong impression that your government undermined Britain’s national security because you are too weak to do anything other appease China.”
In his reply, Sir Keir Starmer argued that the prosecution’s case relied on the then Conservative government’s policy towards China at the time of the alleged offenses, between 2021 and 2023.
“In other words, the prosecution’s case required demonstrating that the position of the then Conservative government was that China was an enemy of the United Kingdom,” he said, and it was “plainly wrong” to suggest that had been the case.
The Director of the CPS, Stephen Parkinson, is also under scrutiny, with MPs suggesting there was sufficient evidence to present the case before a jury.
He reportedly told senior MPs on Wednesday that the evidence was “5%” short of what would have been required to secure a conviction.
The Conservatives have formally requested the CPS to disclose what additional evidence they sought from the government.
Furthermore, the chairs of four parliamentary committees have jointly requested Mr. Parkinson to provide “a fuller explanation for the dropping of charges.”
Labour MP Emily Thornberry, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told the BBC’s World at One, “I can’t see that the jury would have had any problem deciding that China was a threat.”
“I really don’t understand why they [the CPS] were being so pusillanimous about it.”
Another signatory, Labour MP Matt Western, has announced that the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy is launching a formal inquiry into the case.
In the first witness statement, submitted in December 2023, Mr. Collins outlines the case against former parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash, 30, and academic Christopher Berry, 33.
The pair are accused of collaborating with a Chinese Communist Party leader who was deputy director of the Central National Security Commission, chaired by President Xi Jinping.
In one message, Mr. Cash is alleged to have told Mr. Berry: “You’re in spy territory now.”
Both men deny any wrongdoing.
The second witness statement, authored by Mr. Collins in February 2025, after Labour had assumed power, stated that China’s espionage threatened “the UK’s economic prosperity and resilience.”
A third witness statement published in August of this year restated the UK’s view of the challenge posed by China.
However, the two statements submitted under Labour clarified the government’s commitment “to pursuing a positive economic relationship with China.”
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Lin Jian, stated: “China’s position is very clear: we firmly oppose peddling China spy narratives and vilifying China.”
During a debate in the House of Commons, former Security Minister Tom Tugendhat, for whom Mr. Cash was a parliamentary researcher, accused the government of prioritizing procedural correctness over ensuring the prosecution’s success.
“Who the hell’s side are you on?” he asked the government.
In a statement released on Wednesday evening, Mr. Cash asserted that he had been placed in an “impossible situation” because he had not “had the daylight of a public trial to show my innocence.”
He added: “The statements that have been made public are completely devoid of the context that would have been given at trial.”
In a separate statement, Mr. Berry stated: “I pleaded not guilty to the charge, and I have been acquitted.”
“My reports were provided to a Chinese company which I believed had clients wishing to develop trading links with the UK.”
“Those reports contained no classified information… and drew on information freely in the public domain, together with political conjecture, much of which proved to be inaccurate.”
“I do not accept that, in so doing, I was providing information to the Chinese Intelligence services.”
The third witness statement includes the phrase “we will co-operate where we can, compete where we need to, and challenge where we must.”
Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, who also previously employed Mr. Cash as a parliamentary researcher, noted that the phrase was “a direct lift” from Labour’s manifesto.
“It’s very hard to believe there was no political interference,” she added.
“In my view, the Crown Prosecution Service should have proceeded with this.”
“The case law shows it’s for a jury to decide if China is or could be a threat to our country.”
BBC News understands that Mr. Collins assumed he had provided sufficient evidence for the prosecution to continue when he submitted his third witness statement in August 2025.
A government source pointed to comments made by him where he described “the increasing Chinese espionage threat posed to the UK” as an example of why he believed he had said enough to satisfy the CPS’s threshold for prosecution.
It is also understood that the CPS contacted Mr. Collins after his first witness statement to request further clarification on the threat posed by China, but that they were not explicitly clear what the official would need to state in subsequent statements to meet the CPS’s threshold.
The Director of Public Prosecutions has stated that there was sufficient evidence when charges were originally brought, but a precedent established by another espionage case earlier this year required China to have been labeled a “threat to national security” at the time of the alleged offenses.
Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson Calum Miller said the witness statements raised “yet more unanswered questions,” adding, “We clearly need a statutory public inquiry to get to the bottom of this whole fiasco.”
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