A Chinese agent in the British parliament.

[gosub]

Go on where?
Up the Thames on a gunboat?

Who needs gunboat when you can build secret police stations. They are building a lot of gunboats mind

 

[Serge Forward]

So someone whose name you got wrong went to a "Western" University that you can't be bothered to name with "intelligence connections" as opposed presumably to a university with "stupidity connections". That's the result of your digging deep to expose perfidy.

Regardless of your research it doesn't alter the fact that an awful lot of people in Hong Kong dislike being run from Beijing.

Also, it's also pretty standard these days for students from China to go to an overseas university. Many of them do a year here in the universities while UK institutions make hay from their massive fees.

 

[likesfish]

Foreign money is foreign money and mps and political parties shouldn’t be taking it .
Regardless if it’s from insane right wing US think tanks.
“legitimate” east European tycoons.
The Chinese or Arabs or anyone else

 

[Isambard]

Also, it's also pretty standard these days for students from China to go to an overseas university. Many of them do a year here in the universities while UK institutions make hay from their massive fees.

I've read that the % of Chinese students un Australian universities is so high it's now being perceived as a so called national security risk. But as you say, the universities were quite happy to take the money and western states OK with it until a certain tipping point where the advantages started to flow another way.

 

[Isambard]

Foreign money is foreign money and mps and political parties shouldn’t be taking it .
Regardless if it’s from insane right wing US think tanks.
“legitimate” east European tycoons.
The Chinese or Arabs or anyone else

Yeah, all parties so many £ per vote cast at the previous election. Donations limited to £1000 per person per year who have to be tax paying residents or citizens.
And that's it.

Lobby organisations like "Tax Payers Alliance" can go off to a gulag. (slightly in jest there, but they need to be controlled).

 

[Serge Forward]

Indeed. Problem for universities is, if the government fell out with the Chinese government and the students stopped coming, it's possible many unis would crash and burn.

 

[likesfish]

If the party’s can’t afford stupid stunts so much the better.
The Chinese government makes our lot look like tree hugging hippos who only have are best interests at heart.
Although their attempts a being a global military player with the Royal Navy is a bit bless we have 21 proper warships which the nature 1/3will be being rebuilt 1/3 will either be coming back to port or just leaving
Leaves 6 doing whatever warships do and that includes the carriers so a frigate and a destroyer with the carrier leaves leave bobbing about.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

If she has done wrong arrest her and charge her, otherwise this is a dead cat story, with the added spice of further demonising Chinese looking people in the UK like my wife. Who incidentally has recently retired from a proper job in a respected UK institution having had about six books published, however our family will still endure barely hidden racist contempt.

I agree with what has been mentioned above, China probably has a couple of hundred spies in the UK, probably matched by America, but of course Americans look more like ‘us’.

No one who pays attention believes that the Chinese are unique in putting spies into places of power in other countries. Every country will be looking to maximize its self-interest and they will all be looking to have as much information and influence as possible to achieve that.

I'm sorry that your family is being shit upon by idiots.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Foreign money is foreign money and mps and political parties shouldn’t be taking it .
Regardless if it’s from insane right wing US think tanks.
“legitimate” east European tycoons.
The Chinese or Arabs or anyone else

I'd add to that corporate money.

 

[Raheem]

The surprise isn't really that China has spies in the UK, but that they're able to get one employed to hang around the minister of state for security all day long. Of course we also have spies in China, but you can bet they're not carrying Chen Yixin's (thank you Google) bags.

It also seems unusual that the suspect has put out a statement. Wonder how strong the possibility is that there are loose lips somewhere and they stopped looking once they found someone less European looking.

 

[philosophical]

No one who pays attention believes that the Chinese are unique in putting spies into places of power in other countries. Every country will be looking to maximize its self-interest and they will all be looking to have as much information and influence as possible to achieve that.

I'm sorry that your family is being shit upon by idiots.

I suppose I am afraid that if anti Chinese rhetoric is ramped up more and more, the less discerning and thoughtful will have a go in some way shape or form at Chinese looking people.

 

[Isambard]

If the party’s can’t afford stupid stunts so much the better.
The Chinese government makes our lot look like tree hugging hippos who only have are best interests at heart.
Although their attempts a being a global military player with the Royal Navy is a bit bless we have 21 proper warships which the nature 1/3will be being rebuilt 1/3 will either be coming back to port or just leaving
Leaves 6 doing whatever warships do and that includes the carriers so a frigate and a destroyer with the carrier leaves leave bobbing about.

In a wry kind of way its reminds of when Johnson likes to play dressing up as PM, this time they are playing Captain Pugwash. Strait of Malacca and South China Sea are where it's going down from a naval perspective, where the sun of Britain's imperial reach has long since set.

 

[LDC]

Isn't it a bit weird he's been bailed? Surely spying for a foreign country makes him a flight risk, and is serious enough to remand?

 

[philosophical]

Isn't it a bit weird he's been bailed? Surely spying for a foreign country makes him a flight risk, and is serious enough to remand?

They probably thought the Houses of Commons was more secure than Wandsworth nick.

 

[moochedit]

Isn't it a bit weird he's been bailed? Surely spying for a foreign country makes him a flight risk, and is serious enough to remand?

Unless they let him go so they can spy on who he talks to etc but that's a risky strategy if so.

 

[Pickman's model]

Also, it's also pretty standard these days for students from China to go to an overseas university. Many of them do a year here in the universities while UK institutions make hay from their massive fees.

Quite a few unis would be fucked if the Chinese stopped coming

 

[JimW]

The surprise isn't really that China has spies in the UK, but that they're able to get one employed to hang around the minister of state for security all day long. Of course we also have spies in China, but you can bet they're not carrying Chen Yixin's (thank you Google) bags.

It also seems unusual that the suspect has put out a statement. Wonder how strong the possibility is that there are loose lips somewhere and they stopped looking once they found someone less European looking.

Interestingly, the Ford Foundation and other neoliberal institutions made a big push to get up and coming Chinese officials over to study in the US in the 80s, especially Chicago economics, and several of those graduates are near the top of the tree now. Not agents of a foreign power but agents of a certain ideology, as it were. Though most in the faction that lost to Xi. They also put a lot of effort into shaping 'orthodox' economic departments at universities in China, also where a lot of the cadre come from.

As collaboration intensified in the early 1980s, the Ford Foundation reports make
clear that its assistance in the economic reform effort was not merely altruistic.
By favoring China’s slow abandonment of socialist practices, it was hoped, Beijing
would become an integral part of the liberal international system the United
States had forged after WWII. While at times American NGOs, such as the Ford
Foundation, nurtured goals that did not necessarily align with those of the
occupant of the White House, they did strive to promote and disseminate ideas
intended to diminish the appeal of socialism. Therefore, in addition to a genuine
desire to become more knowledgeable about the PRC, in the 1980s, the
Foundation viewed China as the latest “battlefield” on which the organization’s
decades-long effort to promote political and economic freedom was being carried
out. It was believed that if China successfully implemented an economic
transformation, then political changes would follow, making the PRC a
trustworthy ally of the West and a potential candidate to embark in a process of
political democratization.

https://rockarch.issuelab.org/resources/40702/40702.pdf

Hard to search for the papers I recall from here and not too sure about the provenance of this, but that's a fair summary of what was being attempted. He does note later that it didn't exactly work as intended, but it certainly did have an impact.

 

[tim]

I've read that the % of Chinese students un Australian universities is so high it's now being perceived as a so called national security risk. But as you say, the universities were quite happy to take the money and western states OK with it until a certain tipping point where the advantages started to flow another way.

"Being perceived as": the traditional Right-wing media see this as topic that appeals to the prejudices of their audience. As to the tipping point, the number of Chinese students seems to have peaked in the UK some years ago.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

I suppose I am afraid that if anti Chinese rhetoric is ramped up more and more, the less discerning and thoughtful will have a go in some way shape or form at Chinese looking people.

Sadly, you're probably right.

 

[agricola]

Foreign money is foreign money and mps and political parties shouldn’t be taking it .
Regardless if it’s from insane right wing US think tanks.
“legitimate” east European tycoons.
The Chinese or Arabs or anyone else

... and this is the problem. Parliament is awash with foreign money, often used pretty nakedly in pursuit of the aims and objectives of the countries concerned - APPGs especially.

 

[platinumsage]

Sadly, you're probably right.

I wouldn't assume so. There's been no real increase in those sort of problems for Russian speakers since the invasion.

 

[andysays]

...tree hugging hippos...

That's a lovely image

 

[andysays]

I wouldn't assume so. There's been no real increase in those sort of problems for Russian speakers since the invasion.

Chinese looking people are more visible than Russian speakers, and anecdotally it appears that the Chinese origins of Covid led to an increase in anti Asian racism, but I'm not convinced by the claim that this story about Chinese spys has resulted in them being more subject to racism, unless philosophical or anyone else has something to back it up.

 

[planetgeli]

Isn't it a bit weird he's been bailed? Surely spying for a foreign country makes him a flight risk, and is serious enough to remand?

Yeah god help him if he murders someone on a motorbike by driving on the wrong side of the road.

 

[likesfish]

That's a lovely image

tbf hippos are bad tempered short sited and very hostile suits HM government down to a tee

 

[Pickman's model]

tbf hippos are bad tempered short sited and very hostile suits HM government down to a tee

But hippos are lovable whereas hmg can never be lovable, unless they were all drowned in the thames or the zambesi

 

[Magnus McGinty]

Crocodiles fear hippos.

 

[philosophical]

Chinese looking people are more visible than Russian speakers, and anecdotally it appears that the Chinese origins of Covid led to an increase in anti Asian racism, but I'm not convinced by the claim that this story about Chinese spys has resulted in them being more subject to racism, unless philosophical or anyone else has something to back it up.

I mentioned anti Chinese rhetoric being ramped up and it being a threat.
My family members received low level race based hostility, firstly after the vote to leave the EU for some reason, and certainly because of covid.
My partner is from Beijing, and our sons look 'oriental', so I can only back things up with lived experience if that counts.

 

[andysays]

I mentioned anti Chinese rhetoric being ramped up and it being a threat.
My family members eceived low level race based hostilityr, firstly after the vote to leave the EU for some reason, and certainly because of covid.
My partner is from Beijing, and our sons look 'oriental', so I can only back things up with lived experience if that counts.

Members of my family look "oriental" too, and like yours received low level race based hostility because of Covid, so I'm not unaware of the issues.

I'm still skeptical whether this spy business specifically has a similar effect, but I'd be willing to consider any actual examples you or anyone else has to offer.

 

[WhyLikeThis]

Isn't it a bit weird he's been bailed? Surely spying for a foreign country makes him a flight risk, and is serious enough to remand?

I once worked in a large research organisation where a Chinese person was caught red handed stealing high value IP. They received the lightest slap on the wrist. Could you imagine what would happen to someone being caught doing the same in China?