Wavy brown hair, square glasses, discreet smile. The face of Chinese-British lawyer Christine Ching Kui Lee displayed on the MI5 warning notice is well known to Westminster MPs. For more than two decades, the 58-year-old lawyer has continued to multiply initiatives aimed at strengthening relations between China and the United Kingdom.
But since January 13, she has been openly accused by the British internal intelligence service of having “knowingly engaged in activities of political interference” for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) United Front Work Department. The MI5 warning notice explains that this branch of the CCP “seeks to secretly interfere in UK politics”, through established or developing links with parliamentarians and influential personalities “to ensure that the British political landscape is favorable to the CCP’s agenda”.
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The list of his gateway projects is long. In 1997, she contributed to the creation of a multi-party parliamentary group on China – now dissolved. Nine years later, Christine Lee founded the British Chinese Project, a non-profit organization aimed at promoting understanding and cooperation between the Chinese community and British society. This initiative will earn him to be decorated in 2019 by the then Conservative Prime Minister, Theresa May.
“Large-scale espionage operations”
In total, Christine Lee launched sixteen companies and associations, most dedicated to the development of Sino-British ties. Eleven are still active. If the 50-year-old has managed to rise among the British elite, she is also very close to Chinese power, as evidenced by her handshake with Xi Jinping during a conference in Beijing in 2019.
The lawyer served as a legal adviser to the Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs, an agency overseen by the United Front Labor Department and remains a foreign member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a powerless assembly. decision maker. The firm that bears her name, Christine Lee & Co Solicitors,also provided legal advice to the Chinese Embassy in the UK and the Chinese Consulate General in Belfast.
According to the MI5 notice, Christine Lee facilitated the payment of “financial donations to political parties, parliamentarians, aspiring parliamentarians and people considering political office in the UK”. Among them: Labor MP Barry Gardiner. According to Martin Thorley, researcher and author of a thesis on the hidden relations between China and the United Kingdom, Christine Lee made donations in 2009 to the Labor Party in her constituency of Brent North before sending her first direct donation in 2015. From 2015 to 2020, she would have paid Barry Gardiner, via his law firm, more than 580,000 pounds (694,000 €).
Dons
The academic parallels this financial aid and the political support given by the parliamentarian to the project to extend the Hinkley Point nuclear power station, in the south-west of England, in which several Chinese companies were to take part. In 2016, Barry Gardiner, going against his own side, defended this crucial project for Beijing’s nuclear ambitions. Similarly, in February 2013, Christine Lee made a donation to the Liberal Democrat Party in Ed Davey’s constituency, when the latter was Minister for Energy and Climate Change. However, Ed Davey has proven to be a strong supporter of nuclear energy.
The charges against Christine Lee fall as in November Richard Moore, head of MI6, foreign intelligence, said that “top priority” of his agency was “to adapt to a world affected by the rise of China”. He also warned against “large-scale espionage operations” that the Chinese services sought to carry out against the United Kingdom and its allies.
Growing tensions between London and Beijing
The Chinese Embassy in London denied the MI5 accusations, saying: “We do not need and never seek to ‘buy influence’ in a foreign parliament. » Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, quipped: “Some people may have watched too many OO7 movies. »
This case erupts in a context of heightened tensions between London and Beijing. In recent years, the UK has been tough on China over repeated attacks on democracy in Hong Kong. Following the implementation of the national security law, restricting freedoms, Boris Johnson offered visas to residents of the former British colony. In 2020, the Prime Minister also opposed Huawei’s deployment of a 5G network in the UK, causing the ire of Xi Jinping.