A UK immigration officer and a London-based Hong Kong trade official have been found guilty of utilising Home Office systems to track down and spy on dissidents in Britain on behalf of China.
The two British-Chinese dual nationals, 40-year-old former Border Force official Chi Leung “Peter” Wai and 65-year old Chung Biu “Bill” Yuen, a former head of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, stand at the center of an unprecedented years-long case that has raised significant concerns over the malign influence of the Chinese communist regime and its attempts to subvert British democracy.
The two men were convicted on Thursday of assisting a foreign intelligence service under the 2023 National Security Act. Wai was also found guilty of misusing Home Office systems during his tenure at Border Force. They are due back in court for sentencing at a later date.
The pair were arrested alongside several other individuals on May 1, 2024 — eight of whom were subsequently released without charges being presented — after they broke into the property of a Hong Kong woman. A third individual who was initially detained, former Royal Marine Matthew Trickett, was found dead days later in a park in Maidenhead, Berkshire, days after he was presumed to have committed suicide. An investigation into Trickett’s death will follow the conclusion of the ongoing criminal proceedings.
Wai, Trickett, and the woman’s former boss travelled to her residence and pretended to be maintenance workers to deceive her into letting them in under the guise of a “water leak,” but then broke into the property themselves after she did not respond. The group was already under Counter Terrorism Policing’s monitoring before the incident.
“The activity by Wai and Yuen was both sinister and chilling. Our investigation found they were spying for the Hong Kong authorities, targeting UK-based pro-democracy campaigners,” Commander Helen Flanagan, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said in a statement.
“It is completely unacceptable for anyone to carry out this kind of activity on behalf of a foreign state here in the UK,” he continued. “I hope this outcome provides reassurance to those living in the UK who may be concerned about being targeted by any foreign state, that we will do everything we can to help keep them safe.”
Commander Flanagan explained that the investigation was “incredibly complex” and involved over 20 terabytes of data, including messages in multiple languages, all of which allowed his office to demonstrate how Yuen and Wai worked for the benefit of a foreign state. Evidence collected throughout the investigation determined that Yuen, as head of the HK Trade Office in London, received requests from HK authorities to spy on UK-based pro-democracy activists and dissidents, which he then passed down to Wai and Trickett to carry out.
Wai reportedly began working as a Border Force official at Heathrow Airport in December 2020 — a role that gave him access to vast information on foreign nationals in the United Kingdom. The dual national had also served in the British police and the Royal Navy. Wai would carry out the surveillance requests, availing himself of his Border Force position to access Home Office systems, accessing information on Chinese and HK nationals living in the UK — acts that he committed even on his off and sick days, something that The Telegraph pointed out, he was able to accomplish by exploiting the Home Office’s work from home policies.
Most alarmingly, the BBC reports that there were “no checks” on the Home Office’s database systems to prevent Wai from committing his offences. The Chinese-British dual national was said to have referred to his pro-democracy targets as “cockroaches.” The Foreign Office will summon the Chinese ambassador to the UK, Zheng Begun, following the convictions of the two men.
“If and where that happens [working to benefit a foreign state], then you will likely face investigation, arrest and potential prosecution under the National Security Act. And if you are convicted, then like Wai and Yuen, you will be facing extremely serious consequences,” Commander Flanagan warned.
“We will continue to hold China to account and challenge them directly for actions which put the safety of people in our country at risk,” Security Minister Dan Jarvis said, per the BBC, while affirming that “an infringement of our sovereignty… will never be tolerated.”