LONDON: Two men, including one who worked as a British immigration officer, were jailed on Thursday after being convicted of spying on prominent pro-democracy dissidents now based in Britain on behalf of Hong Kong, and ultimately China.
Chung Biu “Bill” Yuen, 66, and Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 41, who worked for the UK Border Force, were convicted last month of assisting a foreign intelligence service by carrying out surveillance on targets between December 2023 and May 2024.
They are believed to be the first people to have been convicted of spying for China in Britain. Wai was also convicted of misusing his Border Force job to search the interior ministry’s computer database for details about targets.
The men, both dual Chinese and British nationals, had denied the accusations, while the Chinese embassy in London said the case was “nothing but a political move of abusing the law.”
“The United Kingdom now faces persistent, adaptive, and often clandestine interference by foreign state actors and those acting on their behalf,” the judge, Bobbie Cheema-Grubb, told London’s Old Bailey court.
