By Michael Holden and Sam Tobin
LONDON, May 7 (Reuters) – Two men, including a British immigration officer, were found guilty in a London court on Thursday of spying on behalf of Hong Kong and ultimately China, targeting prominent pro-democracy dissidents now based in Britain.
Chung Biu “Bill” Yuen, 65, and Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 40, who worked for the UK Border Force, were convicted of assisting a foreign intelligence service by carrying out surveillance on targets between December 2023 and May 2024.
The men, both dual Chinese and British nationals, had denied the accusations, while the Chinese embassy in London has accused Britain of fabricating the charges against them.
They are believed to be the first people to have been convicted of spying for China in Britain, local media reported. Wai and Yuen will be sentenced at a later date and face up to 14 years in jail.
The jury at London’s Old Bailey court was unable to reach a verdict on another charge of conducting “foreign interference” by forcing entry on behalf of Hong Kong authorities into the home in northern England of a woman who has been accused of fraud in the city.
UK-CHINA TENSIONS STRAINED BY SPYING CLAIMS
Relations between Britain and China have been strained since a national security crackdown on sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019 in Hong Kong, which was under British rule for 156 years before reverting to Chinese sovereignty almost three decades ago.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited China in January, but repeated accusations of espionage activities have proved a stumbling block in attempts to improve bilateral ties.
Following Thursday’s convictions, security minister Dan Jarvis said Britain would continue to hold China to account and challenge them for any actions which put Britons’ safety at risk.
The Chinese ambassador would be summoned “to make it clear activity like this was, and will always be, unacceptable on UK soil,” Jarvis added.
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson told jurors that Yuen and Wai had been tasked to carry out “shadow policing operations” for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and ultimately China.
Yuen was a retired Hong Kong police officer who worked at Hong Kong’s Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) in London, while Wai, as well as working for the immigration force was also a volunteer officer for the City of London Police.
Wai was convicted of misusing his Border Force job to search the interior ministry’s computer database and gain access to details of foreign nationals.
Atkinson said the men’s operation involved spying on dissidents resident in Britain, including activist Nathan Law, for whom the Hong Kong government had issued bounties of HK$1 million ($127,700) for information leading to their whereabouts or capture.
Messages between Yuen, Wai and others showed them discussing plans to target activists, who were referred to as “cockroaches”, and carrying out surveillance on British political figures.
ACTIVIST SAYS CONVICTION CONFIRMS FEAR OF CHINA
“For years, members of the Hong Kong diaspora in the United Kingdom have lived in fear,” Finn Lau, one of the targeted activists, said in a statement. “Today’s conviction confirms that fear was not paranoia. It was real.”
A third man who was accused of the same offences as Yuen and Wai was found dead not long after the trio were charged. Matthew Trickett, 37, a former British Royal Marine, had worked as an immigration officer and private investigator. His death was not considered suspicious.
Last November, Britain’s MI5 security service warned lawmakers that Chinese agents were trying to collect information and influence activity at Westminster.
On the day Yuen and Wai’s trial started in March, British police said they had arrested three men on suspicion of assisting China’s foreign intelligence service, including the partner of a sitting lawmaker.
Britain approved in January China’s plans to build Beijing’s largest embassy in Europe in London, leading critics to accuse Starmer of prioritising economic ties over security risks, although UK security officials said these could be mitigated.
($1 = 7.8306 Hong Kong dollars)
(Reporting by Michael Holden and Sam Tobin; editing by William James, William Maclean and Gareth Jones)
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