Despite appearances to the contrary, the Starmer administration or at least MI5 is not entirely indifferent to the threat that Chinese Communist Party espionage poses to the United Kingdom.
House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle relayed the intelligence agency’s warning that Chinese nationals working for the Chinese Ministry of State Security are using LinkedIn to try to link up with naive or corrupt lawmakers and others (Associated Press, November 18, 2025).
“Their aim is to collect information and lay the groundwork for long-term relationships, using professional networking sites, recruitment agents and consultants acting on their behalf,” he said.
MI5 issued the alert because the activity was “targeted and widespread,” he added….
The MI5 alert cited LinkedIn profiles of two women, Amanda Qiu and Shirly Shen, and said other similar recruiters’ profiles were acting as fronts for espionage.
Home Office Minister Dan Jarvis said that apart from parliamentary staff, others including economists, think tank consultants and government officials have been similarly targeted.
The Chinese Embassy in London admitted the existence of the influence operation and said that it would urge CCP leaders to stop all this kind of thing immediately…
April Fools! No, an embassy spokesman “dismissed the allegations as ‘pure fabrication and malicious slander’ and warned the U.K. against further undermining bilateral relations.”
Here’s another fake statement, from Minister Jarvis: “This activity involves a covert and calculated attempt by a foreign power to interfere with our sovereign affairs in favor of its own interests, and this government will not tolerate it.”
Will not tolerate it.
If “this government” will not tolerate spying by “a foreign power,” why, using the flimsiest of spurious and incoherent rationales, did the Starmer administration act to prevent Cash and Berry from being tried for spying for the foreign power called the People’s Republic of China?
