China claims married couple working for government spied for UK’s MI6

Hong Kong CNN —

China on Monday accused Britain of recruiting a married couple employed by the Chinese central government to spy for its MI6 intelligence service, as the two countries trade allegations of espionage.

In a statement, China’s civilian spy agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), said it had recently cracked a “major espionage case” involving MI6, in which it uncovered two important moles “planted by the British side within our ranks.”

The allegation comes just weeks after British police charged three people with spying for Hong Kong’s intelligence service, following charges laid in April against two other people accused of spying for China, including a former researcher for a prominent lawmaker in the ruling Conservative Party.

Those charges in the United Kingdom came after China’s MSS said in January it had detained the head of a foreign consultancy who had allegedly spied for MI6.

Under Xi Jinping, China’s most authoritarian leader in decades, the country’s notoriously secretive spy agency has drastically raised its public profile and broadened its remit. From a shadowy organization without any discernable public face, the MSS has been transformed into a highly visible presence in public life.

Over the last six months the MSS has made regular public declarations of dismantling foreign spying operations, claims which are impossible to verify given their nature but paint the agency in a positive light and provide regular reminders to Chinese citizens to be wary.

In its latest statement Monday, the MSS detailed its allegations against the married couple.

It said an alleged spy, identified by his surname Wang, was working at a position “with access to core confidential information” in an unnamed