In 2025, the Starmer government refused to proceed with the long-prepared trial of two Brits, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, accused of spying on Parliament for the People’s Republic of China. The stated reasons made no sense, and many concluded that the real motive for dropping the case was to appease the Chinese Communist Party on the eve of a Starmer trip to Beijing to appease Xi Jinping in person.
We still have no reason to think otherwise. But the UK government’s willingness to let CCP spies go unpunished is apparently less than limitless. So we now have a guilty verdict (though not yet sentences) in the case of Chung Biu Yuen and Chi Leung Wai (shown above). They had been charged with spying on Hong Kong dissidents now living in the United Kingdom (The New York Times, May 8, 2026).
The nine-week trial, which stemmed from arrests in 2024, had sent a chill through the community of Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigners in Britain…
Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 40, and Chung Biu Yuen, 65, were convicted on Thursday in London’s Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey, of assisting a foreign intelligence service after they were found to be illegally gathering information for the benefit of the authorities in Hong Kong and China. Mr. Wai was also found guilty of misconduct in public office for the misuse of government systems while working as an officer in Britain’s Border Force. [Wai and Yuen are both dual citizens.] Prosecutors said he had used his access to data to identify potential targets for surveillance….
Mr. Yuen, who was head of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, was in contact with people linked to the Hong Kong authorities, and was then instructing Mr. Wai to spy on U.K.-based pro-democracy campaigners, prosecutors said. While Mr. Wai said he was carrying out private security work, evidence from [Matthew] Trickett’s phone showed that both men knew the significance of the people they were targeting and their links to Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigns. Evidence also showed that Mr. Yeun was making payments to the pair, prosecutors said.
Matthew Trickett, who had also been charged in the case, was found dead in a park, possibly by suicide, before he could be tried. According to the Times, “An inquest into his death was expected to take place after these criminal proceedings.” Trickett died in May 2024. Was it impossible to conduct an inquest before now? Might the findings of the inquest have been relevant to the trial of Wai and Yuen?
CCP officials assert that the allegations are all made up.
Hong Kong’s government said it wasn’t a party to the case, but firmly opposed “unfounded allegations” against it or the London trade office.
China’s embassy in the U.K. said it was a political farce orchestrated by Britain through the abuse of law and manipulation of judicial procedures. It alleged the U.K.’s aim was supporting anti-China forces who fled to Britain and smeared both Beijing and Hong Kong governments.
“We strongly condemn this and have lodged serious representations with the British side,” it said.
Okay.
Counter terrorism
Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing in London and of the investigation of the two convicted spies, says: “I hope this outcome provides reassurance to those living in the U.K. who may be concerned about being targeted by any foreign state, that we will do everything we can to help keep them safe.” I hope that’s true.
Hongkongers now residing in the UK didn’t really need the trial to convince them that they are under threat. Many have reported again and again that they are being watched and harassed by agents of the Chinese Communist Party. Only police and other officials have sometimes needed convincing, either of what’s happening or of the necessity of doing their jobs.
Hongkongers are not the only persons badgered by “China’s dangerous spies,” attests Benedict Rogers, a British journalist and human rights activist, who has “known for almost a decade that I am in Beijing’s sights. But it is one thing to receive letters sent from Hong Kong through the letterbox. It is quite another to open the front door and find a potential Chinese agent or collaborator on the pavement outside. Of course I reported the incident to the British police, and they have been very responsive.
“And yet what I have experienced is nothing compared to the sustained threats to diaspora communities, and to their families back home.”
Rogers says that the conviction of Chung Biu Yuen and Chi Leung Wai “sends a welcome and long overdue message to Beijing: your transnational repression and foreign interference campaigns in Britain will no longer be tolerated.” We’ll see.
