On Monday, the United Kingdom is likely to give details of a cyber security threat that it says is posed by China. ‘British Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden is due to make a statement on the issue to parliament’, according to a government official.
The official rejected to confirm whether Deputy Prime Minister Dowden would announce reprisals including sanctions.
The development comes as there have been increasing fears about China’s alleged spying activity in the UK, especially when a researcher at the British Parliament was arrested last year on suspicion of spying for China.
According to the media reports, the researcher, who was involved in international affairs issues, had access to several Conservative MPs. The researcher had approach to security minister Tom Tugendhat and foreign affairs committee chairwoman Alicia Kearns, among others.
‘Ahead of Dowden’s statement in Parliament, the government is expected to blame Beijing for a hack on the country’s Electoral Commission in 2021’, according to the media reports.
The government said in 2023 that Chinese spies were targeting British officials in sensitive positions in politics, defence, and business as part of an increasing spying operation to gain access to secrets.
Meanwhile, in the UK the Chinese embassy accused London of making groundless accusations when the head of MI5 accused China of carrying out an espionage campaign on an epic scale.
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