British MI6 recruited Chinese officials as spies, China says

China has accused the British secret intelligence service MI6 of recruiting Chinese state employees as spies.

In a message posted on its official WeChat channel, China’s Ministry of State Security said MI6 agents had turned against Beijing a Chinese man identified only by his surname Wang and his wife, surnamed Zhou.

Both worked in “confidential” departments of a Chinese state agency.

The ministry claimed MI6 began cultivating Mr Wang when he went to the UK for his studies in 2015, as part of a Sino-British exchange programme.

The agents took “particular care” towards him in the United Kingdom, in particular inviting him to dinners and visits in order to better “understand his interests and weaknesses”, said the ministry.

The BBC has contacted British authorities for a response.

It comes just over a month after the UK charged two men with spying for China. British police accused them of giving “articles, notes, documents or information” to a foreign state, while China called the allegations “malicious slander”.

Beijing and several Western countries are increasingly trading accusations of espionage.

In Mr Wang’s case, Chinese authorities said MI6 agents took advantage of his “strong desire for money”, befriending him on campus under the pretext that they were alumni and led him to provide “paid consulting services.”

After some time, and believing that “the conditions were right”, the agents then asked him to serve the British government in exchange for better pay and offers of security, claimed the Chinese Ministry of Security of State.

Through Mr Wang, MI6 agents also recruited Ms Zhou to spy for China, the statement added.

“Wang was initially hesitant but could not resist (the agents’) repeated persuasion, incitement and even coercion, and finally agreed,” the ministry said in a statement on WeChat.

“At Wang’s strong instigation, Zhou agreed to collect intelligence…and he and his wife became British spies.”

He added that the matter was still under investigation.

China’s Ministry of State Security has frequently posted updates on its official channel since its launch in August.

Among other things, he also warned citizens against photographing military equipment and warned against organizations “recruiting aviation enthusiasts as volunteers” to transmit China’s flight data to other countries. ‘other countries.