The Chinese embassy in London said on Monday it strongly condemned witness statements released by Britain in a spying case, calling them “baseless accusations that are completely fabricated and unfounded.”
“We call on the UK to stop making trouble with China, stop engaging in anti-China publicity and stop undermining China-UK relations,” a spokesman for the embassy said in a statement posted on its website.
The head of Britain’s intelligence services warned on Monday of the “threat” China poses to the UK every day, as a spying scandal on behalf of Beijing puts intense pressure on Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
The case comes as Labour, after taking power in July 2024, is trying to boost dialogue with China after years of frosty relations under Conservative governments.
It has sparked a strong reaction from Beijing today, which says the allegations of espionage for China are “completely fabricated” and threaten to “undermine relations between the two countries.”
China is Britain’s fifth-largest trading partner, according to the latest official figures.
However, trade relations remain deeply imbalanced in Beijing's favour: in 2024, Britain imported around £67 billion (€77 billion) worth of Chinese goods, compared to £19 billion (€21 billion) worth of British goods imported by China. How did the case begin? -
Christopher Cash, a 30-year-old parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, a 32-year-old former teacher in China, were arrested in 2023, accused of collecting and passing to Beijing information that could "directly or indirectly be useful to an enemy".
The two men, who deny the charges, are charged under the Official Secrets Act, which prohibits the disclosure of state secrets or information that could threaten national security.
However, the legal proceedings were halted in September, with Attorney General Stephen Parkinson considering that the government had not provided evidence that China posed a threat to Britain's national security. According to the prosecution, this was a necessary element for the prosecution to be carried out. The confrontation -
The cessation of the prosecution has caused reactions, with the conservative opposition accusing the government of exerting pressure to drop the charges in order to appease Beijing and avoid jeopardizing Chinese investment in the United Kingdom.
Keir Starmer stressed that the Conservative government that was in power at the time of the events (between December 2021 and February 2023) had never explicitly characterized China as a threat.
The Prime Minister, who declared himself “deeply disappointed” by the cessation of the prosecution, insisted that the prosecution is independent of politics. He described the opposition’s accusations as “slanderous allegations”.
And as the controversy continued, on Wednesday he finally approved the publication of the evidence that his government had forwarded to the judiciary. These are three depositions by Matthew Collins, deputy national security adviser. What do the depositions say? –
They clearly show that the government considers China to be a threat, which could focus attention on the prosecution and increase questions about its decision to drop the charges.
In the most recent submission, dated August 2025, Collins writes that “Chinese intelligence services are conducting large-scale espionage operations against the United Kingdom (…) to harm its interests and security.”
These operations “threaten the economic well-being of the United Kingdom and the resilience and integrity of our democratic institutions,” he writes, while emphasizing that the British government wants to build “a positive relationship with China.”
Collins’ submissions also reveal that the two men who caused the scandal were accused of passing sensitive information of political importance to an agent of Chinese intelligence services for about a year. And now? –
The conservative opposition subsequently assessed that this was information “limited, far from what was requested” by the government.
“The China files must now be released in full and without delay,” a Conservative Party spokesman insisted.
For Labour, Matt Western MP announced today that the parliamentary national security committee, which he chairs, would open an inquiry “as soon as possible” into the case. There are “many questions that need to be asked,” he said.
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