Four current and former UK intelligence sources hailing from GCHQ, MI5, and MI6 reveal some of the tactics used by the UK government to counter Chinese espionage, including safe rooms and burner phones
touched down in Beijing on Tuesday, becoming the first Foreign Secretary to do so in five years, he began a trip that would be at risk of attempts from Chinese espionage to delve state secrets from the minister and his aides.
The Foreign Secretary’s trip to Beijing posed a perfect opportunity to further infiltrate the UK government by Chinese-backed espionage, but UK intelligence sources say the UK will have put in a host of measures to protect Mr Cleverly and his team from any hostile attempts.to detail some of the tactics used by the UK government to counter Chinese espionage, including safe rooms, and burner phones.
The trip would have been planned months in advance, the sources said, and precautions would have begun with a one-on-one briefing between Mr Cleverly and the UK’s international intelligence agency,The briefing would examine the Foreign Secretary’s risk and provide advice as to the methods to prevent any intelligence leaking.
Any new advances from Chinese officials or businessmen should be logged and briefed back to the UK security services, the source added. A second former intelligence source who now works for a government department said an “important part” of the briefing would be to “think about what we would do to exploit a visit by a senior Chinese minister” and “assume that the Chinese will do the same – or probably more – and guard against it”.
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