The Government has published new witness statements relating to the collapsed case against two men accused of spying for China.
Christopher Cash and Christopher Barry were accused of passing on secrets from Parliament to the Chinese government.
Last month, charges were dropped against the two men who also denied the allegations.
The new publication includes witness statements from national security adviser, Matt Collins.
Mr Collins provided three statements to prosecutors – one in 2023 and two earlier this year – as to whether China had been regarded a security threat.
‘Large scale espionage operations’
In one statement, Collins said Chinese intelligence services were conducting “large scale espionage operations” but that the UK was committed to a “positive relationship” with the country.
In his final witness statement provided in August, he said: “As I said in my first statement, the Chinese Intelligence Services are highly capable and conduct large scale espionage operations against the UK to advance the Chinese state’s interests and harm the interests and security of the UK.
“Chinese espionage operations threaten the UK’s economic prosperity and resilience and the integrity of our democratic institutions.”
But he also said: “It is important for me to emphasise, however, that the UK Government is committed to pursuing a positive relationship with China to strengthen understanding, cooperation and stability.
“The Government’s position is that we will co-operate where we can; compete where we need to; and challenge where we must, including on issues of national security.”
‘Biggest threat to UK economic security’
In his witness statement dated 21 February this year, Collins said China was “the biggest state-based threat to the UK’s economic security”.
He said a “wide range of UK government and commercial targets” had been attacked by “advanced persistent threat” (APT) groups which had been attributed to China’s Ministry of State Security.
An APT “uses continuous, clandestine, and sophisticated hacking techniques to gain access to a system and remain inside for a prolonged period of time, with potentially destructive consequences”, Mr Collins said.
“In July 2021, the Government attributed the hack of Microsoft Exchange servers to the Chinese state linked actors and judged that the purpose of the attack was highly likely to enable large-scale espionage, including acquiring personally identifiable information and intellectual property.”
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