U.K. police charge 2 men with spying for China

LONDON (Reuters) -- British police on Monday charged two men alleged to have spied for China, in breach of the Official Secrets Act.

The two men, aged 32 and 29, were charged with providing prejudicial information to China. They would appear in court on Friday, the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement.

"This has been an extremely complex investigation into what are very serious allegations," said Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Counter Terrorism Command at the Metropolitan Police.

There has been growing anxiety about China's alleged espionage activity in Britain, particularly after it emerged last year that a parliamentary researcher was arrested on suspicion of spying for China.

The government said then that Chinese spies are targeting British officials in sensitive positions in politics, defense and business as part of an increasingly sophisticated spying operation to gain access to secrets.