Top UK security officials are to face questions over an aborted China spying case brought by its chief prosecutor, which collapsed at the same time that the UK is seeking to rebuild economic ties with the country.
A government spokesperson denied a report in the Sunday Times that it was the interference of senior British government officials, including British National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell, that torpedoed the case.
British prosecutors in a letter released on Tuesday said they did “everything possible” to bring to trial Christopher Cash, 30, a former director of the China Research Group think tank, and Christopher Berry, 33, who were charged last year under the Official Secrets Act over allegations they passed politically sensitive information to a Chinese intelligence agent between 2021 and 2023, but the case fell through when the government declined to label Beijing “an enemy.”
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Powell in June agreed to give evidence to the parliament’s Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy. Although the committee’s inquiry is about the wider strategy, he is expected to be asked about the collapsed trial, a person familiar with the matter said.
A date has yet to be decided, but Powell could appear before the committee within weeks, they said, adding that a report is unlikely to be published until next year.
Senior officers from MI5 are also expected to give evidence to the parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee about their involvement in the case, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named when discussing closed-door proceedings.
The Sunday Times report said the decision by the Crown Prosecution Service was made after officials decided that evidence in the trial would operate in line with the government’s national security strategy, which characterizes China as a “geostrategic challenge” rather than a “threat” or an “enemy” — effectively nullifying the case.
The Conservatives, who were in government until last year, and other opposition political parties have accused British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party government of deliberately collapsing the trial to avoid upsetting China.
Speaking to journalists en route to India, Starmer said he had briefly read the letter and would not give a view on it one way or another, but said again that the designation of China at the time of the alleged offense in 2023 was what mattered.
“You have to prosecute people on the basis on what was the state of affairs at the time of the offense,” said Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions himself. “Nothing changes that fundamental, whoever is in government.”
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