The UK is just waking up to the scale of Chinese espionage

The scene could have come straight out of a spy novel. An ornate Chinese garden with temples and pavilions, built at one of the highest points in Washington DC – a gift from the Chinese government. At its heart, a 70-foot high white pagoda – perfectly positioned and equipped to eavesdrop on communications at the heart of the American government below.

China offered to spend $100 million to build the garden at the National Arboretum. But the project never got off the drawing board. It was quietly killed off by US counter-intelligence after they discovered that Chinese officials wanted to build the pagoda with materials shipped to the US in diplomatic pouches, meaning they could not be examined by US customs officials.

The pagoda plot is one of a number of alleged Chinese espionage operations to have come to light as US officials step up their warnings about a dramatic escalation of spying by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – on both sides of the Atlantic.