China agent has been interfering in British Parliament: Speaker
Lawmakers given alert based on data from UK security service MI5
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LONDON • An agent of China "has been engaged in political interference activities" in the British Parliament, Speaker of the House of Commons Lindsay Hoyle has warned lawmakers.
Citing an alert from British security service MI5, Mr Hoyle named Ms Christine Lee and said she has been working for the Communist Party of China (CPC) to engage with Members of Parliament and political entities.
"I should highlight the fact that Lee has facilitated financial donations to serving and aspiring parliamentarians on behalf of foreign nationals based in Hong Kong and China," Mr Hoyle wrote in an e-mail sent on Thursday that was seen by Bloomberg.
Mr Hoyle's office declined to comment beyond saying in a statement that the Speaker "takes the security of members and the democratic process very seriously".
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said: "China always follows the principle of non-interference in other country's domestic affairs. We have no need to, and will never, engage in so-called interference."
He added: "Certain people may be too obsessed with the 007 movie series and have made unnecessary associations."
The revelation is a further hit to ties that have soured in recent years between China and Britain amid a Chinese crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong, a former British colony.
Criticism by British lawmakers over alleged human rights abuses by the Chinese authorities against its Muslim Uighur minority and steps by ministers to curtail Chinese investment in sensitive British infrastructure have also damaged the relationship.
Mr Hoyle said the facilitation of donations by Ms Lee "was done covertly to mask the origins of the payments", behaviour that he described as unacceptable.
Ms Lee is working in coordination with the United Front Work Department (UFWD) of the CPC, according to a document sent to MPs called a "Security Service Interference Alert".
The UFWD "identifies and cultivates individuals with the aim of promoting the CCP's agenda", it said, using another term referring to the CPC.
Who is Christine Lee?
Ms Christine Lee, also known as Christine Ching Kui Lee, is the founder of a law firm called Christine Lee & Co Solicitors, which has offices in London and Birmingham.
The company lists on its website one of its roles as legal adviser to the Chinese Embassy in Britain.
Ms Lee is listed as a British national in financial filings with Companies House, Britain's corporate registry.
In 2019, then British Prime Minister Theresa May presented Ms Lee with an award to recognise her contribution to Sino-British ties.
Ms Lee was also photographed with Mrs May's predecessor David Cameron at an event in 2015, and separately with former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Today, the lawyer has not been arrested or deported, but is barred from entering Parliament, said Mr Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative leader and vocal critic of Beijing.
A Chinese media report in 2019 noted that Ms Lee was one of the representatives of the Chinese community overseas who were invited to participate in the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China that year, the Guardian news site reported.
The report said Ms Lee, now 58, had migrated from Hong Kong to Northern Ireland with her parents in 1974 when she was a child and was often teased by her classmates.
She was quoted as saying in the report: "I understood at that time that no matter how fluent my English is, and no matter what nationality I am, I will always have yellow skin, black eyes, and the blood of the descendants of Yan and Huang will always flow in my body."
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Electoral Commission data shows Christine Lee & Co Solicitors has donated almost £250,000 (S$462,000) to the Labour Party since 2009, mainly to the central party, but also to electoral district branches of the party.
The law firm also donated £5,000 to the Liberal Democrats in 2013, the records show.
Separately, commission data shows Ms Lee's firm has donated almost £430,000 to Labour MP Barry Gardiner since 2015. The donations to the former shadow trade secretary were declared and there is no suggestion of impropriety.
A person familiar with the matter said Ms Lee was not just targeting Labour MPs, but also members of the ruling Conservatives. Ms Lee "has extensive engagement with individuals across the UK political spectrum", according to the interference alert.
In a statement released on Thursday, Mr Gardiner said he had been liaising with the security services for a number of years about Ms Lee, and they had assured him "that whilst they have definitively identified improper funding channelled through Christine Lee, this does not relate to any funding received by my office".
Mr Gardiner said Ms Lee's donations were used to fund staffing costs, and that "steps were taken" to ensure that she had no role in appointing or managing his researchers.
"She ceased funding any workers in my office in June 2020," he said, adding that Ms Lee's son had volunteered in his office many years ago and was subsequently employed as a diary manager.
"He resigned from my employment earlier today," he said, adding that the security services have advised him that they had "no intelligence that shows he was aware of, or complicit in, his mother's illegal activity".
BLOOMBERG
