The House of Commons is said to investigating an event held last week which reports suggest was attended by a Chinese “spy”.
A man, claiming to be a tourist, reportedly tried to enter an invitation-only talk on July 5 which was being addressed by Hong Kong freedom activists.
The individual thought to be a spy gave a name that was not on the approved list and did not say who he was representing. The Daily Mail says that the man left after a brief stand-off.
The Telegraph is now reporting that parliamentary authorities are investigating the event.
Bob Seely, a Conservative MP and member of the foreign affairs select committee who organised the discussion, told the Mail it would be “completely inappropriate” for Beijing “to send an operative to intimidate or record people at a private parliamentary event”.
The meeting was addressed by Finn Lau and Christopher Mung, who are two of three British-based Hong Kongers who last week had £100,000 arrest bounties put on their heads by Beijing-controlled Hong Kong police
Finn Lau, a 29-year-old chartered surveyor, fled to the UK in 2019 to escape persecution. He has set up the campaign groups Hong Kong Liberty and Stand with Hong Kong.
Christopher Mung, a 51-year-old trade union activist who flew to the UK in 2021 to escape persecution by the communist authorities, also spoke at the meeting in the commons.
In all, around 200 MPs, peers, journalists and democracy campaigners were invited to attend the private briefing on Hong Kong hosted.
Mr Seely, who is a member of the Commons foreign affairs committee, told the Daily Mail: “If this was a Chinese Communist Party spy then it is yet another example of this regime’s cack-handed malign incompetence.
“It would be completely inappropriate for Beijing to send an operative to intimidate or record people inside a private parliamentary event”.
Mr Lau, who was once beaten unconscious by suspected CCP supporters, told the newspaper: “I believe this man was a CCP informer. This is one of the remotest committee rooms in Parliament. And it is on the top floor. It is not a coincidence that a random Chinese tourist was outside the room at the exact right time and was attempting to access the event”.
Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith also asserted “The Government must act on this – it is astonishing”.
