Government sources have reportedly informed the Mail on Sunday that Chinese bugging devices have been discovered in popular areas frequented by civil servants and government researchers.
Such areas allegedly include the popular Red Lion pub, situated just steps away from the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street. A government source told the paper that the historic pub, which stands on the grounds of a 15th-century medieval tavern, is “full of Chinese agents”.
Other targets of Beijing’s dragnet reportedly ranged from five-star hotels to even benches in St James’s Park, located between Buckingham Palace and Downing Street, and close to major government departments, such as the Foreign Office and the Treasury.
A government source told the paper: “We have been told the Chinese literally have the park bugged, with devices in the bushes and under park benches.”
“Commons researchers are regarded by the Chinese, and other spies including the Russians and Iranians, as the soft underbelly of Whitehall,” said one source.
It is said to be thought that Communist China is particularly interested in lower-level civil servants, researchers and junior staffers to parliamentarians, who Beijing sees as the “soft underbelly” of the UK state. Many such staffers often frequent the Red Lion pub or have lunch in St James Park.
However, the CCP is still actively targeting senior politicians in Britain, particularly Members of Parliament who are critical of the Chinese state.
Figures such as former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who was personally sanctioned by China for raising the genocide facing the Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang, have been targeted in frequent cyber attacks believed to emanate from Beijing.
In 2022, the MI5 intelligence service accused “British Chinese Project” founder Christine Lee of having acted as a spy on behalf of the CCP to “subvert the process” of democracy. Lee was found to have had close contacts with numerous MPs and had donated heavily to mostly left-wing lawmakers, reportedly giving £700,000 to the Labour Party.
At the time, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage remarked: “If there’s one Chinese spy in parliament, you can bet your life there’s a lot more than that.”
Farage also called for a “complete root and branch” investigation into ties between Beijing and the British political class, whom he accused of “sucking up to China for a long time.”
Earlier this month, the Reform boss accused China of attempted industrial sabotage after the state-tied Jingye firm sought to permanently shut down Britain’s last major steelworks, having taken over British Steel in 2020. After pressure from Farage and Reform, the Labour government took control over the Scunthorpe plant to prevent its closure and is likely to nationalise British Steel fully in the coming weeks.
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