China actively targets academics and pundits as part of its broad espionage strategy, a NATO official told VICE News after it was revealed a UK parliamentary researcher had been arrested on suspicion of spying for China.
The NATO counterintelligence official – who adamantly stressed they had no direct knowledge of the UK case – said that Chinese spies have long turned to a hybrid form of espionage, often involving pundits and experts on Chinese affairs.
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“[China] runs and recruits traditional agents much like any Western service,” said the official, who cannot be identified in the media. “They also use a wide range of unconventional recruiting methods, targeting academics, researchers, and potential pundits with a mix of both soft and hard methods.”
It comes as a parliamentary researcher arrested on suspicion of spying for China denied the charges in a statement from his lawyers.
The researcher was arrested along with another unidentified suspect in March under anti-espionage laws linked to the first suspect’s role as a parliamentary researcher on Chinese issues for the Commons Foreign Affairs committee.
The arrests were first reported by the UK’s Sunday Times newspaper, which has also identified the parliamentary researcher, although his lawyers did not name him when issuing a statement on his behalf.
The precise details of the arrest – made under the Official Secrets Act – have not yet been public but are widely believed to be connected to the researcher’s access to politicians and staffers in Westminster.
While “hard” methods would be a traditional relationship of recruitment along with payment and management by an intelligence “handler,” the NATO source said China was often happy to settle for less formal relationships.
“This is going on in every country that deals with China on any level,” said the official.
“They’ve got the capacity to recruit spies but also recruit and flatter all sorts of secondary level types in academia, government and the media. Some people don’t need to be bought; they can just be nudged, treated like they’re important and flattered into doing lots of useful things that might not technically be considered espionage.”
Scotland Yard released a statement about the arrests on Monday after media reports over the weekend.
“Officers from the Metropolitan Police arrested two men on March 13 on suspicion of offences under section one of the Official Secrets Act 1911,’ said the Met.
In an anonymous statement released through lawyers, the parliamentary researcher suspect denied all the charges.
“It is wrong that I should be obliged to make any form of public comment on the misreporting that has taken place,” the suspect said via their solicitor. “However, given what has been reported, it is vital that it is known that I am completely innocent.”
The revelation that a staffer with near total access to parliament – although not with security clearances – had been arrested under anti-espionage laws immediately infuriated multiple government officials, some of whom claimed they’d read about the charges in the newspaper instead of being briefed by the government, according to the Sunday Times.
Labour leader Keir Starmer on Monday demanded an explanation from the Conservative government on whether the issue had been raised in person with Chinese officials since the original arrests in March.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claims to have raised the issue with Chinese officials at this weekend’s G20 meeting in India, a conversation which led to public denials of any involvement in spying by China, which called the story “slander.”
