Alarm as MI5 names China spy suspects targeting MPs

MPs and peers have been warned that they face “a covert and calculated” attempt to recruit parliamentarians through two LinkedIn profiles linked to the Chinese intelligence service.

- Dan Sabbagh Amy Hawkins Eleni Courea

After MI5 issued an espionage alert yesterday, saying that two people operating on LinkedIn were aiming to obtain “nonpublic and insider insights”, the security minister, Dan Jarvis, told MPs that the effort was focused on those “with access to sensitive information about parliament and the UK government”.

With the Chinese embassy in London dismissing the accusations as “pure fabrication”, the diplomatic dispute appeared to be a new flashpoint in the increasingly tense relationship between China and the UK over alleged espionage.

MI5 said the profiles were under the names Amanda Qiu, from BR-YR Executive Search, and Shirly Shen, who is linked to Internship Union, and told MPs and peers they were using LinkedIn to “conduct outreach at scale”.

The spy agency sent its warning yesterday morning to the speaker of the Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, and his Lords equivalent, John McFall, both of whom relayed its contents to the members of their houses with a cover message.

In his email to peers, McFall said the individuals, linked to China’s ministry of state security spy agency (MSS), were aiming “to collect information and lay the groundwork for long-term relationships, using professional networking sites, recruitment agents and consultants acting on their behalf”.

Qiu's profile on LinkedIn, written in English, describes her as having been the chief executive of BR-YR Executive Search for more than six years and says she is based in Beijing. Her listed interests include the UK's Department for Transport and the Tony Blair Institute.

Shen's profile, also largely in English, describes her as the co-founder of Internship Union, based in Hangzhou, eastern China.