Is Beijing a threat? Espionage warnings amid confused sequence of events

Stephen Parkinson revealed in a letter to two parliamentary select committees that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had dropped the case because prosecutors had tried and failed to obtain a witness statement from the government stating that China was an “enemy” and that, in particular, Beijing posed a current “threat to the national security of the UK”.

- Dan Sabbagh

What did the director of public prosecutions say?

Without it, he conceded, the trial of the two men had to be abandoned.

The prosecutor did not say who failed to make the assertion sought, but the focus is on Downing Street and, in particular, the national security adviser, Jonathan Powell.

It had fallen to Matthew Collins, his deputy, to give witness statements in the case, part of evidence from the government setting out the harm alleged by the spying and the wider geopolitical context.

“Efforts were made over many months,” Parkinson said, “but notwithstanding the fact that further witness statements were provided, none of these stated at the time of the offence China represented a threat to national security.” He concluded: “When this became apparent, the case could not succeed.”

Why was it necessary to define China as an enemy?