Hong Kong activists have called on the UK government to investigate the region’s trade offices in central London after two men connected to the organisation were jailed in what is believed to be the first successful British prosecution involving spying on behalf of China.
Christopher Mung, executive director of Hong Kong Labour Rights Monitor and a UK-based pro-democracy activist who was one of the targets of the operation, told The Observer the case shows that the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) is being used as “a political tool for surveillance and intelligence gathering”.
He urged ministers to review the special status it was given in 1996, which effectively granted it the same diplomatic protections and legal immunity as a foreign consulate, shielding its premises and staff from British lawsuits and law enforcement. “The diplomatic privileges granted to the HKETO have become a threat to the diaspora community,” he said. “I therefore urge the UK government to revoke the HKETO’s status.”
Bill Yuen, an office manager at the HKETO, and Peter Wai were sentenced last week at the Old Bailey for assisting a foreign intelligence service linked to China.
Justice Cheema-Grubb said they had engaged in “shadow policing operations” targeting people living in the UK. The judge said Yuen acted as the “conduit, organiser and facilitator” of the intelligence gathering and surveillance.
The court heard how Wai, who was employed at the time as a UK Home Office Border Force Officer at Heathrow, used his position to search Home Office databases to gather information on the Hong Kong diaspora living in the UK.
According to the prosecution, a private security firm owned by Wai received a total of £95,500 from a HKETO bank account between June 2023 and January 2024. Wai worked with Matthew Trickett, a Home Office immigration officer and ex-Marine, to conduct surveillance and intelligence gathering on pro-democracy campaigners in the UK. Trickett was charged alongside Wai and Yuen in 2024 and found dead in Maidenhead, Berkshire, less than a week later.
Nathan Law was one of those targeted by the group. Law fled Hong Kong in 2020 after Beijing imposed the National Security Law which criminalised subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign actors with punishments of up to life in prison. Authorities later placed a HK$1m bounty on his head. According to evidence presented in court, surveillance of Law had been ongoing since 2021 and included monitoring his home and business addresses, and photographing him at a public speaking event at the Oxford Union.
Law said the “HKETO is not doing what they claim they are doing” and that “it’s quite obvious that after the National Security Law they have another new line of mission, which is to surveil and spy on Hong Kong dissidents and campaigners for democracy in the UK.” The HKETO denies this claim.
“The UK government should do a thorough investigation and determine whether the HKETO is posing national security threats to the UK and especially to the Hong Kong community,” Law said. “Many of us moved here because we felt unsafe in Hong Kong... None of us wanted to feel the same thing again when we are in the other half of the world in the UK.”
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Yuen and Wai received a sentence of eight and six years respectively for assisting a foreign intelligence service linked to China. Wai received an additional four years for misconduct in public office.
In her sentencing remarks, Justice Cheema-Grubb warned that foreign powers could not be allowed to pursue their objectives “on British soil with impunity”. The case is one of the first convictions under the National Security Act 2023, legislation designed to deal with modern forms of state interference.
Angela Eagle, the Security Minister, said: “These sentences send a clear message – we will not tolerate anyone breaking our laws and compromising our security to assist a foreign state.”
The Home Office said the “government is taking a consistent, long term, and strategic approach to managing the UK’s relations with China, rooted in UK interests. We will co-operate where we can and challenge where we must.”
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said there are no plans to remove the HKETO’s privileges.
The HKETO was approached for comment.
Listen to the Observer’s investigative series China’s shadow war
Photograph PA/Alamy