This could be interesting…
…Bill Yuen, a manager of Hong Kong’s trade office in London, and Peter Wai, a former UK border officer … have been accused of gathering intelligence and conducting surveillance against Hong Kong democracy activists in the UK and of allegedly breaking into a residence in London.
Background from December 2024. A third defendant was found dead in a park.
US-based activist Anna Kwok, whose father was recently imprisoned for the NatSec offence of helping an absconder, is pushing for the passage of a law in the US barring Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices from operating.
Would this count as collusion with a foreign power in Hong Kong? Surely it would…
The three men were charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service and engaging in foreign interference, in violation of the UK’s National Security Act…
Unlike in a Hong Kong NatSec case (eg Anna Kwok’s father), the pair have been out on bail, and will get a jury trial. They also get a normal, rather than specially designated, judge.
Curious/tenuous local angle: that judge, Bobbie Cheema-Grubb, attended what is now the Dickson Poon Law School at King’s College in London. She also has some experience of cases involving interference by foreign powers: a few months ago she gave a 10-year sentence to a British politician from a MAGA/populist grift party for taking bribes from Russia.
The Washington Post gave an indepth report on this case without the constraints of sub judice under English law. It seems the HKETO chap was operating independently and not with spooks. He was hired by a Chinese billionairess to retrieve monies owed from the person (a HK-er) who was residing in the place they broke into. MI5 and Met officers were waiting for them.
My reckoning is they they’ll be let off with perhaps a breaking and entering rap, but the tragedy is the ex-Royal Marine who took his own life from the fallout of this. He was hired by the HKETO minion and his Border Force sidekick and fed a strong of lies.
Re the Was Post article. If this is the case then it would have been more prudent for HKETO to have apologized that a rogue offical had brought its operations, and the country, into disrepute and pledge support into any investigation.
By denying that there had been illegal activity and paying for his legal representation it is effectively taking ownership of the debacle.
As for the the suicide, was there any pressure exerted on the ex-marine that led to his suicide? In view of the sensitive nature of the event he should have been monitored.