Law says conviction of two men for spying raises serious concerns about how they accessed sensitive information
N
athan Law, an exiled leader of the Hong Kong student protest who lives with a £100,000 bounty on his head from the Chinese authorities, was not surprised to discover a spy ring had photographed him entering the Oxford Union for an evening debate in November 2023.
The conviction at the Old Bailey of Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 38, and Chung Biu “Bill” Yuen, 65, for assisting a foreign intelligence service, was a sobering first – no Chinese spies had been convicted in British criminal history before Thursday – but the details that came out in the nine-week trial mainly served to confirm his suspicions.
Law, 32, was already aware he was a target and had taken his usual precautions before and after the debate, at which he had been arguing in favour of the case that China’s rise was a risk. He was, as he always is, studious in checking who was around him. He was picked up in a car to get home. “There is no public information that anything sensitive about my whereabouts has been compromised,” he said of that day.
