A new report says Chinese spies made it into Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, where they met with Prince Philip, the husband of Queen...
A new report says Chinese spies made it into Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, where they met with Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II.
The Sun reported Sunday that the Chinese agents met the prince by acting as representatives of charities.
It said that Philip, who died last year at age 99, met with the Chinese group in 2017 but would not have been aware of any connection between the charity and China’s intelligence services.
The report said Chinese agents infiltrated two charities.
One, FaithInvest, was co-founded by the prince to develop environmental projects.
The agents were also part of a delegation that met with Philip as part of his activities with the Alliance of Religions and Conservation, the Sun reported.
The China Taoist Association was identified in the report as the group that included Chinese agents.
The group is actually linked to China’s United Front Work Department, the Sun reported.
“The United Front Work Department is used to present a more acceptable face to a fairly unpleasant regime,” the outlet said it was told by an intelligence source it did not name.
“But they are also involved in ruthless intelligence and foreign interference activities as well,” the source said.
“The China Taoist Association has played a major role in discussions on faiths and ecology, both in China and within Chinese communities around the world,” said Martin Palmer, a co-founder of FaithInvest.
“That is why Prince Philip, who founded ARC, met the Taoists on a number of occasions,” he said.
Last week, MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, said a woman connected with China’s Communist Party has been trying to infiltrate the political process in Britain, according to CNN.
Christine Ching Kui Lee has “acted covertly in coordination” with the United Front Work Department of the CCP and is “judged to be involved in political interference activities in the UK,” according to the MI5 “interference alert.”
“We judge that the UFWD is seeking to covertly interfere in UK politics through establishing links with established and aspiring Parliamentarians across the political spectrum,” it said, according to CNN.
Lee has been facilitating “financial donations to political parties, Parliamentarians, aspiring Parliamentarians and individuals seeking political office in the UK, including facilitating donations to political entities on behalf of foreign nationals,” the alert said.
Her actions in Britain have “been undertaken in covert coordination with the UFWD, with funding provided by foreign nationals located in China and Hong Kong,” according to the alert.
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