UK unveils anti-spying plan after MI5 China alert

Many of us treat a LinkedIn message as just another ping. MI5 says two of those messages were part of a recruitment push by Chinese intelligence, aimed at people with access to sensitive information in Westminster. In a gov.uk announcement, ministers outlined what happens next and how politics, universities and workplaces should respond.

According to MI5, two online profiles posed as legitimate headhunters to build relationships with potential targets, including MPs’ staff and officials. The agency issued an espionage alert to MPs, Peers and Parliamentary staff, a formal tool used to disrupt hostile state activity by warning potential targets and deterring contact.

Security Minister Dan Jarvis told MPs he will coordinate a Counter Political Interference and Espionage Action Plan. The aim is simple: make it harder for foreign states, including China, to interfere in UK democratic life and to recruit insiders.

The plan involves security briefings for political parties and fresh guidance for election candidates so they can recognise, resist and report suspicious approaches. Officials will work with professional networking sites to close down covert activity, and ministers will tighten rules on political donations through a new Elections Bill, according to the government notice.

If you are a student, researcher or early‑career professional, this is not an abstract warning. The MI5 examples describe approaches that start with a flattering message about your skills, shift to requests for policy insight or technical papers, and then introduce payment for regular ‘consultancy’. That is the recruitment arc investigators see again and again.

Good media‑literacy habits help. Treat unsolicited offers for ‘insight’ work with scepticism, check organisations via official websites and email domains, and keep sensitive documents off personal devices. If an approach touches on internal policy, non‑public data or asks you to move to encrypted apps, pause and seek advice from your manager, university security team or party officials.

Jarvis said the government would keep challenging China‑based actors responsible for malicious cyber activity against the UK and allies. Ministers also flagged new investment in the people and tools that keep official business secure.

£170 million will renew sovereign encrypted technology used by civil servants to protect sensitive work. A further £130 million will build Counter Terrorism Policing’s ability to enforce the National Security Act and expand the National Cyber Security Centre and National Protective Security Authority programmes that help critical firms guard their intellectual property, the government said.

Ministers told Parliament they have completed the removal of surveillance equipment made by companies subject to the People’s Republic of China’s National Intelligence Law from sensitive government sites worldwide. That law can compel companies to support state intelligence, which is why the hardware has been taken out of secure environments.

This package sits alongside a new Cyber Security and Resilience Bill designed to help organisations withstand state‑backed threats. It follows the government’s wider commitment to raise defence spending to the highest level since the end of the Cold War, as ministers have set out.

The National Security Act now gives prosecutors clearer tools to pursue espionage. Offences include obtaining protected information, assisting a foreign intelligence service, and receiving a material benefit from such a service. In practice that can mean being paid, gifted or otherwise rewarded for information that helps a hostile state.

It is important to keep perspective. The risk described by MI5 concerns activity directed by a foreign state; it does not justify suspicion towards British Chinese communities or people of Chinese heritage. We can stay open to study, trade and debate while holding the line on democratic rules and personal responsibility online.

What this means for you if you work in politics, education or research is straightforward. Keep a record of unsolicited contacts, verify identities through official channels, share alerts with your team, and report concerns. Preventing interference is a shared job, and the sooner suspicious activity is surfaced, the easier it is to stop.