China is targeting Britain’s Sinosceptics

The Times has today named the parliamentary researcher who has been arrested under the Official Secrets Act, on suspicion that he was spying for China. The man in question had links to several senior Tory MPs who were privy to classified or highly sensitive information include Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, and Alicia Kearns, who chairs the Commons foreign affairs committee. The man in question was arrested back in March; a handful of ministers were informed but details of the alleged security breach were not made public until this weekend,

The most striking aspect of this story is the sheer amount of time and effort which China appears to be investing in targeting parliament and Beijing hawks in particular.  Tugendhat and Kearns are prominent Sinosceptics. Both believe that they have been targeted by Chinese hackers before. Tugendhat had to call in a division of GCHQ in 2020 to examine online impersonation efforts.