Though too dumb to know that smart people do dumb things all the time, accused spy Bill Yuen Chung-biu, former manager of Hong Kong’s trade office in London, offers as his defense that he’s too smart to have done the dumb things of which he is accused. Moreover, he has an explanation for everything (The Star, April 5, 2026).
A national security trial in Britain that thrust the role of Hong Kong’s overseas trade promotion offices into the global spotlight has heard the defendant deny he was spying on prominent activists from the city and UK politicians on behalf of China.
Two years after his arrest, Bill Yuen Chung-biu took to the witness box last week….
Yuen, a retired Hong Kong police superintendent, is accused of passing on surveillance requests from city authorities to co-defendant Peter Wai Chi-leung, who allegedly used his position as a United Kingdom Border Force officer to gather personal details about the activists using the Home Office computer systems.
Among the alleged targets was Nathan Law Kwun-chung, one of 19 overseas activists with HK$1 million (US$127,700) bounties placed on their heads by Hong Kong police.
Yuen says that if he had really done “something illegal for my authorities, you would not be able to pick up such suspicious things here. I would not be dumb as that.” The evidence that he did the spying is the proof that he didn’t.
He says that he dealt with Wai only to get help with security for his trade office, since Wai had a background in security. When a prosecutor cited a text message in which Yuen asked Wai to photograph UK politicians who were attending a protest organized by Hongkongers, Yuen’s rebuttal was ready. The only purpose was to make sure that his office could more efficiently avoid those politicians.
Wai sent phone numbers, addresses, and other details about protesters to Yuen “on several occasions, including photos of activist Law and the number plate of his car, according to chat logs the prosecution presented in court.”
When Yuen sent a photo of one demonstrator to Wai and asked for info about him, Wai replied “Let me do some digging.” Yuen contends that he had asked “out of curiosity,” nothing more.
According to the prosecution, Yuen and Wai also participated in the “debt collection” operation in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, on April 30, 2024.
Metropolitan Police officers, conducting surveillance on a resident being harassed at her home, watched as a group of men tried to trick their way inside before forcing entry. Officers intervened and arrested 11 suspects, among them Wai and Trickett and two other former Hong Kong police officers.
Their phones and records led investigators to Yuen, who was arrested at his London flat shortly afterwards, and prompted the wider investigation.
Yuen reports that all he did in relation to this particular incident was help Wai and some retired police officers hook up with each other. Just a referral. Nothing to do with Wai or the Chinese government.
Yuen was just standing around minding his own business when all of the various things of which he is accused happened.
