UK Minister Calls for Stronger Laws After Chinese Spy Found Operating in Parliament

Detail of an MI5 Security Service Interference Alert (SSIA) identifying Christine Ching Kui Lee as "an agent of the Chinese government” operating in the British Parliament, issued by the Office of the Speaker of the House of Commons on Jan. 12, 2022. House of Commons/PA

The UK needs to strengthen its laws to prosecute foreign agents engaged in political interference activities, Home Secretary Priti Patel said after a Chinese Communist spy was found to have been operating in the British Parliament.

Britain’s MI5 security agency took the unusual step of sending an alert to Parliament warning that an individual named Christine Ching Kui Lee has been “knowingly engaged in political interference activities on behalf of the United Front Work Department (UFWD) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”