LORD David Cameron has today summoned the Chinese ambassador for a furious dressing down over spy claims.
The Foreign Secretary ordered Beijing’s man Zheng Zeguang be hauled in for an explanation after three men were charged with espionage on British soil.
Mr Zeguang was warned that a recent spate of spying as well as cyber attacks was “not acceptable.
It came as a Heathrow Border Force official, a former Royal Marine, and a retired police officer appeared in court accused of spying on pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong.
Chi Leung Wai, 38, Matthew Trickett, 37, and Chung Biu Yuen, 63, are charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service by carrying out espionage work in the UK.
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It is alleged that Yuen "tasked" Wai and Trickett to "conduct specific hostile activity which includes information gathering, hostile surveillance, acts of deception and forcing entry into a UK residential address.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson said this morning: “Today, on instruction from the Foreign Secretary, the Chinese Ambassador was summoned to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
“The FCDO was unequivocal in setting out that the recent pattern of behaviour directed by China against the UK including cyberattacks, reports of espionage links and the issuing of bounties is not acceptable.
“The summons followed Monday’s announcement that three people have been charged with offences under the National Security Act as part of an investigation led by officers from the Met Police’s Counter Terrorism Command.
"The foreign intelligence service to which the charges relate is that of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region."