Britain jails two men in first China spying convictions

Britain has crossed a new line in its response to foreign interference, jailing two dual-national men for spying on behalf of China and targeting Hong Kong pro-democracy dissidents living in the United Kingdom. The case reached beyond covert monitoring: one defendant, a UK Border Force worker, used Home Office systems to search personal data on people under watch, showing how transnational repression can exploit both secret networks and public institutions.

The Old Bailey sentenced Chung Biu Bill Yuen, 66, to eight years in prison and Chi Leung Peter Wai, 41, to 10 years. The convictions, secured under the National Security Act 2023, were the first in Britain for spying for China. The jury did not reach verdicts on separate foreign interference charges against either man, but Wai was also convicted of misconduct in public office after prosecutors said he abused official systems to access information without authority.

Prosecutors said the pair acted deliberately and in coordination, with extensive digital and financial evidence presented at trial. Counter Terrorism Policing said the men gathered information for the benefit of Hong Kong and Chinese authorities, and that the surveillance included highly sensitive details about activists and their families. One focus of the operation was Nathan Law, a prominent Hong Kong democracy campaigner living in Britain. Messages on Yuen’s phone indicated that surveillance of Law had been ongoing since 2021.

The investigation began after police arrested nine people on 1 May 2024 in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, during a search tied to an attempted encounter involving a Hong Kong woman living in the UK. Yuen, Wai and Matthew Trickett were charged on 12 May 2024. Trickett was later found dead in Maidenhead on 19 May 2024, and an inquest is expected after the criminal proceedings.

Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said at sentencing that Britain now faced persistent, adaptive and clandestine interference by foreign state actors, and that modern intelligence work could include surveillance, intimidation and the targeting of dissidents protected by British law. Counterterrorism officials described the conduct as chilling, while the Chinese embassy dismissed the case as politically motivated. For Hong Kong activists and other diaspora campaigners in Britain, the verdicts make clear that physical distance does not automatically mean safety, and that protecting democratic speech abroad now requires vigilance inside the state itself.