Chinese spies are eavesdropping on British political figures by bugging park benches and buildings in Whitehall, security sources believe.
Amid mounting fears about the level of Beijing’s intelligence activity in the UK, officials holding sensitive positions in Westminster have been warned about ‘hotspots’ to avoid in London’s SW1 area.
These include the historic Red Lion pub – ‘it’s full of Chinese agents’, one source claimed – five star hotels, including the Corinthia by Trafalgar Square and the new Raffles on Whitehall, and St James’s Park, which is beside Downing Street, the Foreign Office and the Treasury.
‘We have been told the Chinese literally have the park bugged, with devices in the bushes and under park benches,’ one source said.
That is because the park is a popular meeting spot for researchers and civil servants enjoying a sandwich over lunch.
Beijing sees the hundreds of people who work in Westminster, including the junior staff working for MPs, as targets.
A source said: ‘Commons researchers are regarded by the Chinese, and other spies including the Russians and Iranians, as the soft underbelly of Whitehall.’
Amid mounting fears about the level of Beijing’s intelligence activity in the UK, officials holding sensitive positions in Westminster have been warned about ‘hotspots’ to avoid in London’s SW1 area. These include the historic Red Lion Pub (pictured)
Officials have also been warned to avoid the Corinthia Hotel in London, near Trafalgar Square (pictured)
One source said that they ‘have been told the Chinese literally have (St James’ Park) bugged, with devices in the bushes and under park benches’ (pictured: St James’ Park)
Parliament is already a daily target for cyber attacks by hostile actors. MPs who have been critical of China experience high numbers of hacking attempts, and parliamentarians are given regular security briefings on how to handle the threat.
Away from Westminster, doctors treating British soldiers are being targeted by Chinese hackers attempting to steal their patient data. Some have been advised to take additional precautions, including not taking their mobile phones into appointments with their patients and keeping paper records, to avoid hostile actors stealing data.
One doctor who has patients in the military and spoke on the condition of anonymity said: ‘I have a real problem with the Chinese trying to get my communications.’ A senior source said: ‘We need to wake the world up to just how serious the situation is.
‘We’ve got too many people looking to make ties with China. They need a wake-up call.’
Writing on this page, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp says: ‘We know China is building a spying and repression network right here in the UK.’
Mr Philp adds that failing to put China in an ‘Enhanced’ tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme means the Government has lost a resource that would have ‘helped keep tabs on those working in the interests of the Chinese state on British soil’.
The new Raffles hotel on Whitehall has also been labelled as a ‘hotspot’ to avoid
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘We know China is building a spying and repression network right here in the UK’
Anonymised patient information is being uploaded to the central database of the UK Biobank, and analysis has suggested one in five successful applications for access come from China.
It prompted warnings from MPs that the information could be harvested by Beijing to develop bioweapons.
And last week the MoS revealed that plans for a new Chinese ‘super-embassy’ could include ‘spy dungeons’ and interrogation cells in the heart of London.
