An unexpected contact on the professional network. A proposal of employment from a headhunter, most likely a young woman, operating from the Asian nation. The opportunity to make around £20,000 on the side preparing a handful of political analyses for a Chinese company containing confidential or “insider” insights. Payment in cryptocurrency or physical money favored.
It might appear obvious, in this scenario, that something about this approach would be amiss. However, China’s influential Ministry of State Security continues to view it valuable to deploy headhunters to try it – leading the domestic spy agency to warn repeatedly about their activity on the internet.
Massive Contact Attempts on Social Media
Last year, the head of MI5 Ken McCallum said operatives from China were approaching Britons on LinkedIn on an unprecedented level, at a rate of 10,000 over the previous 30-month period, seeking political, commercial, military and scientific secrets. But a fresh initiative aimed at politicians and Westminster has prompted the intelligence service to act again.
An espionage alert was issued on this week via the offices of the Commons speaker and his House of Lords counterpart: a brief presentation after the persistent attempts of Shirly Shen and other operatives to reach out to MPs, lords, their staffers, economists, thinktanks – anyone who might provide information.
Intelligence Approach and Legal Updates
In the curious style of British intelligence, there was no official release of the protective guidance from the agency or the Home Office. But the agency was aware its advisory document would become public once it was sent electronically out to Westminster. Republishing it in the press helps the general population better identify communications with a deceptive purpose.
This warning has the effect of flushing out additional details from in and around parliament, though that is not the agency's primary purpose. The agency aims for people in public life to recognize that simply because exchanges on LinkedIn are less overtly risky as on other social platforms, it does not mean they are without risk.
Additionally, the domestic spy agency understood to have been reacting to any specific incident in the legislature, although the burst of activity does come after the embarrassing failure of the legal case of a ex-assistant Christopher Cash and his associate Christopher Berry on a technicality in recent months.
The two had been accused of spying for China – a charge they rejected – but inability to complete a prosecution under the since replaced previous legislation led to warnings that the UK's political system had been insufficiently defended.
Updated Laws and Beijing's Strategic Interests
The law has now been changed, and the MI5 slide contains a reminder of its successor: “Those engaging in spying operations risk significant criminal penalties under the National Security Act.” It is a crime if a person engages in conduct that is or is likely to “significantly help a overseas spy agency”.
An obvious inquiry, though, is what China has to gain. A politician who is not a government minister will have limited knowledge of classified material, and an contact of theirs even less. But Beijing is particularly focused in the legislative body: for a time, in recent years, the UK’s approach to China on issues such as Huawei or the Uyghur repression or alleged atrocities was being driven by parliamentarians.
Methodological Variations and Ongoing Cyber Risks
In part there are cultural differences as well. Authoritarian governments like Beijing's export intelligence collection methods and the size of its spy network is enormous, engaging 300,000 people. Chris Inglis, a American cybersecurity head under the US administration, said it was occasionally assessed that “the Chinese have greater linguistic capacity engaged in this than Western agencies have English speakers”.
Beijing is prepared to develop contacts over the long term and at times even the agencies have struggled to differentiate genuine connections and spying. “Beijing has a low threshold for what information is considered to be of value,” the minister responsible Dan Jarvis told MPs on Wednesday, but a rapid shift in the government situation may mean someone rapidly marginal turning significant.
Another way to think about the continuous efforts at secret intelligence collection is in the wider context of the international competition between China and the Western nations at a level below the point 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 breach of millions connected equipment.
Beijing is engaged in relentless attempts to find secret informants on UK politics online because it seeks to be challenging, to display influence and because it has the capability.
