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How China really spies on the UK

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in November 2024. (Chinese Embassy in the UK)

By Gordon Corera

It is a question that successive governments have struggled with: what kind of threat does China really pose to the UK?

Trying to answer it may have contributed to the high-profile collapse of the case in which two British men, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, were accused of spying for China and charged under the Official Secrets Act. Both deny wrongdoing – but when charges were dropped last month, it sparked political outcry.

Prosecutors and officials have since offered conflicting accounts about whether a failure or unwillingness to label China as an active threat to national security led to the withdrawal of the charges. And Lord Hermer, the attorney general, blamed “out of date” legislation for the case’s collapse.

Read more at BBC News

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