Recent court rulings in the UK have upheld the government’s identification and punishment decisions regarding Chinese Communist Party spies who are British citizens or permanent residents, with close relationships established with British MPs and even members of the royal family. In a series of espionage events, prompted by Parliament, the UK government plans to launch a foreign influence registration scheme next year, making it difficult for CCP spies to hide.
On December 17, the UK Investigatory Powers Tribunal ruled that MI5’s listing of Li Zhenju as a threat to national security in the “disruption alerts” distributed to MPs and subsequently made public was within the legal framework.
Five days earlier, on December 12, the UK Special Immigration Appeals Tribunal upheld the Home Office’s decision to ban Chinese businessman Yang Tengbo from entering the UK on grounds of national security.
Successive court rulings indicate the UK’s sudden awareness of the national security risks posed by CCP infiltration.
Li Zhenju arrived in the UK at the age of 11 from China. She founded her own law firm in 1990, specializing in immigration issues, including asylum applications and work visas related to China, which led her to establish connections with the Chinese Embassy and become a legal advisor to the embassy in 2008.
In January 2022, MI5 issued a warning that Li Zhenju had established contacts with current and future members of Parliament for the benefit of the Chinese Communist Party. Li Zhenju provided financial donations to political parties and MPs, with donations coming from mainland China and Hong Kong. Labour MP Barry Gardiner was one of the MPs funded by Li Zhenju, receiving over £420,000 from her within five years.
The warning issued by MI5 to MPs specifically stated that Li Zhenju “deliberately represented the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party in political intervention and activities”.
The United Front Work Department’s name also appeared in the court ruling related to Yang Tengbo.
Yang Tengbo came to the UK for studies in 2002, established the consulting firm Hampton International Group in 2005, and obtained permanent residency in the UK in 2013. In 2019, Yang Tengbo was photographed attending a CPPCC meeting in Beijing.
In 2021, UK border officials found evidence on Yang Tengbo’s devices of his connection to the United Front Work Department of the CCP. Authorities also discovered a letter from Andrew Prince’s senior advisor, Dominic Hampshire, to Yang Tengbo.
The letter stated that Yang Tengbo could represent the prince in contacting potential investors from China. Hampshire seemed to suggest in the letter that Prince Andrew valued Yang Tengbo: “Apart from his closest confidants, you are sitting on top of a tree that many, many people would like to climb.”
In 2023, then Home Secretary Suella Braverman ordered the cancellation of Yang Tengbo’s residency and banned him from entering the UK.
As Li Zhenju and Yang Tengbo continue to make headlines, the name of the CCP United Front Work Department has also become ingrained in the minds of the British public.
The full name of the CCP United Front Work Department is the United Front Work Department. “United Front” was originally proposed as a strategy by Soviet leader Lenin. This strategy emphasizes the need for the proletariat to attract other social classes such as the petty bourgeoisie, middle peasants, and national bourgeoisie to join or at least remain neutral to isolate the enemy as much as possible. The United Front was praised by CCP leader Mao Zedong as a key factor in the Communist Party’s victory in the decades-long Chinese civil war.
In the modern era, the CCP views “united front work” as a tool to infiltrate Western countries.
According to a report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, the CCP United Front Work Department directs “overseas Chinese work,” attracting individuals and communities of overseas Chinese residing outside China to engage in influence activities in other countries.
Chinese writer Ma Jian, living in the UK, told Epoch Times that Yang Tengbo and Li Zhenju are people who have been manipulated and utilized by the United Front Work Department.
“Li Zhenju, Yang Tengbo, and many others like them have been unearthed one by one in London or in the UK. This may be inevitable because these people have joined the United Front Work Department themselves, attending meetings and events at the Great Hall of the People as representatives of overseas Chinese without realizing that they are playing the role of spies. For them, this is quite an honorable thing – to be summoned by their so-called homeland.”
Ma Jian went to Germany in 1997 and then moved to the UK in 1999. In 2002, he won the Thomas Cook Travel Literature Award for his novel “Illegal Traveler.” In 2005, he was selected as one of the global top 50 authors of the century by the French magazine “Reading.” His 2008 work, “Beijing Coma,” based on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, was banned in China. In 2011, Ma Jian was banned from entering China by the CCP government.
Yang Tengbo vehemently denies external accusations of being a spy. In materials submitted to the court, he stated that he has no connections with anyone in Chinese politics, has never joined the CCP, and has never acted on behalf of the United Front Work Department for the CCP. Yang Tengbo also claimed that his limited contacts with the Chinese government made contact with the United Front Work Department unavoidable.
Ma Jian believes that Yang Tengbo is not a professional spy for the CCP. “Professional spies do not get caught, and there is no phone or computer that can trace them. He thinks that people like Yang Tengbo are just stationed by the Chinese Embassy to keep tabs.
Ma Jian believes that the exposure of Yang Tengbo and Li Zhenju serves as a wake-up call for the Chinese community in the UK.
“Why do you have to serve your former homeland, and why do you have to try to live in London? No country will have so many so-called compatriot groups. But here, they are everywhere. During holidays like National Day or other festivals, you will see these aunties performing dances at the lion square of the Chinese Embassy.”
The UK government’s identification and exposure of CCP spies or agents is a precursor to the UK’s countermeasures against CCP infiltration.
On December 16, the UK Parliament debated how to address the CCP United Front Work Department. Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith stated during the debate that Yang Tengbo was not a “lone wolf” but one of the 40,000 members of the United Front Work Department.
He urged the Security Minister to take action against the CCP United Front Work Department: “(The United Front Work Department) has infiltrated various sectors of the UK economy, engaged in espionage activities, stolen intellectual property, and influenced and shaped our institutions… So will the Security Minister address this issue today and recognize that China is our biggest security threat, and all actions must prioritize addressing it?”
The “Foreign Influence Registration Scheme” under the 2020 UK National Security Law was originally scheduled to be implemented this year. However, after the Labour Party government came to power in July, the implementation of the plan was postponed.
The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme aims to combat foreign agents’ secretive political activities in the UK. The scheme will require individuals to disclose who they are arranged with, what activities they are instructed to carry out, and when the arrangements were made.
Under pressure from MPs, UK Security Minister Dan Jarvis confirmed in Parliament that authorities plan to develop regulations supporting the scheme at the beginning of the new year and then implement the scheme in the summer. He also stated, “Strong security and intelligence analysis is being used to determine which foreign forces will be assigned to enhanced levels.”
Former Security Minister Brandon Tungdatt openly stated that the Home Office is ready to place the CCP in the enhanced category under the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme. According to the UK Home Office, the enhanced category gives ministers the power to require broader disclosures of activities involving specific countries, parts of countries, or entities controlled by foreign governments.
Ma Jian suggests that employees of CCP enterprises should also register in the UK because both state-owned and private enterprises in China are controlled by the CCP.
“Huawei possibly has a thousand employees in an office building in the UK. Based on this level, their party committee should have no less than thirty people. Who is the party committee secretary? Where is he stationed? Acting in the name of which research chief or technical backbone to stay in London and collect intelligence?”
In October 2020, the UK Parliament concluded through an investigation that there is “clear evidence” of collusion between Huawei and “Chinese Communist Party organs.” A report from the House of Commons Defence Committee cited a venture capitalist stating that the Chinese government provided around $75 billion (€57 billion) in funding to Huawei’s development over the past three years. The report also said that Huawei was involved in various intelligence, security, and intellectual property activities.