Security services such as London’s MI5 and Ottawa’s RCMP appear to be going after individuals and organisations out of pure antagonism and distrust against Beijing rather than having actual evidence.

The sudden collapse of a British Crown case against two alleged spies for China sounds like a story straight out of the current dark comedy series Slow Horses, about incompetent spooks from MI5, the country’s domestic intelligence service.

Meanwhile, a senator of Chinese heritage is demanding an apology from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian equivalent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, and restitution for two community groups in Montreal that were absurdly accused of operating “Chinese police stations”, those mythical entities that Chinese security agents and their moles supposedly operate across Canada.

The cases in the UK and Canada have many similarities. The security services in both countries pushed for them with flimsy evidence and went public with their allegations, effectively imputing guilt in the mind of the public. And anti-China politicians in both countries jumped on the bandwagon, thereby helping to build up momentum before anyone could challenge the basis of their charges or allegations.

Last month, Canadian news media reported that the RCMP had shut down a probe into the Service à la Famille Chinoise du Grand Montréal, and the Centre Sino-Québec de la Rive-Sud. No charges would be laid.

In an official statement to the news station CTV, the RCMP confirmed: “We have closed the foreign interference investigation into alleged illicit activities reported in connection with Chinese diaspora service centres in the Montreal area. Due to ongoing legal proceedings, we are unable to comment in greater detail.”

The “ongoing proceedings” refer to a lawsuit filed by the two ethnic community groups and Brossard city councillor Xixi Li, who is associated with both groups, against the RCMP and the mayor of Brossard for defamation and seeking more than C$4.9 million (HK$27.3 million, A$5.3 million) in damages.

Li, a community social worker, said she had been physically attacked and insulted in public. She said during the whole ordeal, the RCMP never once approached or interviewed her, despite the public allegations.

The Chinatown Round Table in Montreal, which represents the local ethnic Chinese community, and Senator Woo Yuen Pau, an independent, have demanded an explanation and a formal apology.

The ordeal of the two Montreal groups started shortly after a Spanish human rights group, Safeguard Defenders, alleged in 2022 that China was running more than 100 “police stations” in more than 50 countries, including Canada.

Riding on lingering public outrage over China’s detention of two Canadians in response to the country’s house arrest of then Huawei No 2 and company founder’s daughter Meng Wanzhou for a failed US extradition attempt, the RCMP opened its own investigation, targeting among others, the two Montreal community groups.

But just as quickly, in April 2023, the RCMP said it had shut down all “Chinese police stations” in Canada, leading some critics to question just how many of those stations actually existed, if any. However, it appeared its probe into the two Montreal groups continued for some time.

At roughly the same time last month, across the Atlantic, Crown prosecutors dropped charges against two British men, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, who had been accused of spying for China under the Official Secrets Act. They were accused of gathering and providing information “prejudicial to the safety and interests of the state” between late December 2021 and April 2024.

Cash was a researcher at the Conservative Party’s China Research Group, whose sinophobic work is mostly propaganda for public consumption, so it’s hard to see how many valuable secrets he could have obtained.

The BBC reported that his co-workers at the CRG had “expressed disbelief” at his arrest, but CRG chairman and Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, and CRG member and fellow Tory MP Alicia Kearns were among the first to throw him under the bus. Both are now claiming the Labour Government of Keir Starmer deliberately scuppered the prosecution’s case.

Kearns used to  accuse China of threatening her safety and that of her family, and unsuccessfully demanded extra official protection.

The equally unfortunate Berry once worked as a teacher in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, where he provided several written reports allegedly to a Chinese spook called “Alex” – not yours truly.

Berry’s lawyer James Mulholland KC told the court “Alex” was no more than an employee for a Chinese company “keen to engage in trade with the UK”. Moreover, he argued, “the information in the reports was freely available on the internet and of the type that parliamentary bloggers regularly upload”.

It’s obvious by now that the case against the two men collapsed because of insufficient evidence.

The latest row over the case stems less from the alleged intelligence breach or its sudden collapse but more from the infighting between the Starmer Cabinet and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on the one hand, and MI5 and the Home Office, both of which are under the home secretary.

Without even bothering to hide it, officials from MI5 and/or the Home Office appear to be providing background briefings to such outlets as the Financial Times, Sunday Times and The Telegraph, among others.

They claim the case collapsed only because the Starmer Government refused to provide a key witness, deputy national security adviser Matthew Collins, whose testimony that China is an “enemy” state was crucial to the Crown’s case.

But, commenting on Substack, Joshua Rozenberg KC, who is not involved in the case, wrote: “Tom Little KC, for the prosecution, told the court that the ‘evidential threshold’ could no longer be met. Why was that not the case when charges were authorised?

“The director of public prosecutions seemed to hint that dropping the charges might have had something to do with the fact that China is not considered an ‘enemy’ state. But China’s status has not changed since charges were authorised. And there was never any need under the Official Secrets Act to prove the friendliness or otherwise of a specific intelligence recipient.”

In any case, no British Government, Tory or Labour, has ever classified China as an “enemy state”. The more recently amended Official Secrets Act no longer cites “enemy”.

Rozenberg added: “Convictions based on evidence from the Security Service must be rather more challenging now that MI5 can no longer be relied on to tell the truth in court.”

Republished from South China Morning Post, 7 October 2025

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.