A UK Border Force officer and his handler, a senior Hong Kong trade official based in London, have been jailed for spying for China in the first such conviction under the National Security Act. Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 40, was sentenced to 10 years and Chung Biu “Bill” Yuen, 65, to eight years at the Old Bailey on Thursday after a jury found them guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service.
Wai, a Border Force officer at Heathrow Airport who had previously served as a police officer in the Metropolitan Police and as a special constable in the City of London police, used his access to the Home Office computer system to track Hong Kong dissidents who had fled pro-democracy crackdowns. He was also convicted of misconduct in public office, receiving an additional four years on top of the six-year term for the intelligence offence.
“Border Force officer Peter Wai jailed 10 years, handler Bill Yuen eight, for spying for China in first National Security Act convictions.”
Yuen, a former Hong Kong police officer who later worked as office manager of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, became Wai’s contact with Chinese authorities after they met in 2021. Together they conducted what detectives described as a “shadow policing operation… conducted on behalf of the Hong Kong authorities, and by extension, the Chinese state”.
Sentencing the men, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said their actions “threaten the sovereignty of the state”. She described Wai’s attitude towards his misconduct as “arrogant”, adding that he had a “sense of entitlement” to do as he pleased. The judge noted that the case is one of the first to be prosecuted under the National Security Act, which Parliament enacted in response to “persistent, active and often clandestine interference by foreign state actors”.
“Modern foreign intelligence activity is not confined to orthodox espionage and may take the form of surveillance and information gathering about dissidents,” Cheema-Grubb said. “Conduct of this kind threatens not only the individual victims but the sovereignty of the state and public confidence in institutions and the safety that this jurisdiction must afford to those lawfully present here.”
Cdr Helen Flanagan, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said the investigation shows such activity “will not be tolerated”. In a statement, she added: “I want to be really clear that if you are working on behalf of a foreign state, that we in counter-terrorism policing and with our partners will identify who you are and bring the full force of the National Security Act upon you.”
The case raised serious questions about foreign interference and the ability of hostile states to gather information on individuals living in Britain. Security Minister Angela Eagle said the government “will continue to hold China to account and take action against anything that puts the safety of people in our country at risk”, including Hong Kong police’s use of arrest warrants and bounties.
In the public gallery, several pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong watched the sentencing – among them one who has had a HK$1 million (£100,000) bounty placed on her by authorities in Hong Kong. The Chinese embassy has said the case was an abuse of law designed to embolden anti-China elements “bent on destabilising Hong Kong”.