Chinese state threat activities in the UK
China has been accused of conducting state-threat activities in the UK such as industrial espionage, cyber-attacks, and spying on politicians. The UK Government has responded by passing new legislation to counter state threats, while still trying to pursue stronger economic relations with China.
Successive UK governments and the intelligence and security agencies have described a rising threat from China, mentioning in particular its desire to gain commercial secrets, and its willingness to use cyber and other espionage tactics to access this information.
UK intelligence agencies have repeatedly warned of large-scale Chinese espionage targeting government, industry and academia.
In October 2025, MI5 Director General, Ken McCallum, said state threats “are escalating”, and “in the last year we’ve seen a 35% increase in the number of individuals we’re investigating for involvement in state threat activity”, adding “that means espionage, including against our Parliament, our universities, our critical infrastructure”.
In May 2024, Anne Keast-Butler, Director of GCHQ (the UK's intelligence, security and cyber agency), said “we now devote more resource to China than any other single mission”, and that “China poses a genuine and increasing cyber risk to the UK”.
In 2024, the UK attributed a major cyber-attack on the Electoral Commission to a Chinese state-affiliated group, APT31, saying it was “almost certain” to have “conducted reconnaissance activity against UK parliamentarians”, primarily targeting politicians “prominent in calling out the malign activity of China”.
How has the UK Government responded to Chinese state-threat activity?Over the last several years, successive governments have introduced legislation to counter the risk from state threats and introduced new national security related strategies.
The most significant piece of legislation is the National Security Act 2023. The act created an extensive framework for countering state threats modelled on the counter-terrorism framework, and its measures included new offences relating to espionage, sabotage and entering prohibited places. It also established a Foreign Interference Registration Scheme (FIRS).
FIRS has two-tiers. Under the less restrictive “political influence tier”, an individual/entity must register with the government if they have entered into an arrangement with a “foreign power” where they are “directed” by them to arrange for, or carry out, political influence activities in the UK.
The “enhanced tier” allows the Secretary of State to specify a foreign power or foreign power-controlled entity to protect the safety or interests of the UK. It would then be an offence for anyone to carry out any activity (outside a narrowly scoped group of exempted activities) in the UK at their direction without it being registered.
Russia and Iran have been added to the enhanced tier. There have been calls for China to be added to the enhanced tier, including from Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights. The government has said that “no decision has been taken” on whether they should specify China on the enhanced tier of the scheme, and the political influence tier which applies to all countries “is a significant step forward in protecting our democracy from interference”.
The current government has said that while it acknowledges the threats from China, and will continue to counter them, it must continue to work with China to pursue a strong economic relationship.
In the government’s June 2025 National Security Strategy, it said that “instances of China’s espionage, interference in our democracy and the undermining of our economic security have increased in recent years”. As such, “our national security response will therefore continue to be threat-driven, bolstering our defences and responding with strong counter-measures”. On China, the strategy also said that “We will seek a trade and investment relationship that supports secure and resilient growth and boosts the UK economy”.
How has the government responded to economic state-based threat activities?Successive governments have also introduced new powers in legislation to counter economic state-based threat activities.
In July 2021, the Conservative government ordered that equipment from the Chinese company Huawei must be removed from the UK’s 5G network, using powers to restrict the use of telecommunication equipment produced by ‘high risk vendors’ in the Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021.
The National Security and Investment Act 2021 introduced new powers for the government to investigate and intervene in mergers, acquisitions and other deals that could threaten the UK’s national security.
The Procurement Act 2023 introduced enhanced powers for public bodies to exclude certain suppliers from procurement on national security grounds and to terminate contracts where necessary.
What has the Chinese government said about accusations of state-threat activity in the UK?The Chinese Government has consistently denied it is conducting espionage in the UK and is a threat to UK interests. In June 2025, a spokesperson for China’s London Embassy said that “accusations such as Chinese espionage, cyber-attacks, and transnational repression against the UK are entirely fabricated, malicious slander”.