Nathan Law, an exiled leader of the Hong Kong student protest movement who lives with a £100,000 bounty on his head from Chinese authorities, was not surprised to discover a spy ring had photographed him entering the Oxford Union for an evening debate in November 2023.
Historic Conviction at the Old Bailey
The conviction at the Old Bailey of Chi Leung “Peter” Wai, 38, and Chung Biu “Bill” Yuen, 65, for assisting a foreign intelligence service was a sobering first – no Chinese spies had been convicted in British criminal history before Thursday. However, the details that emerged from the nine-week trial mainly served to confirm his suspicions.
Law, 32, was already aware he was a target and had taken his usual precautions before and after the debate, at which he argued that China's rise posed a risk. He carefully checked who was around him and was picked up by a car to return home. “There is no public information that anything sensitive about my whereabouts has been compromised,” he said of that day.
HKETO's Role Under Scrutiny
It was also unsurprising to him that Yuen, the older of the two men convicted and said to have orchestrated the spying, worked as a senior manager at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) in Bedford Square, Bloomsbury, central London. As the official overseas representation of the Hong Kong government, HKETO's role is to promote trade, investment, and cultural ties. But Law said every arm of the Hong Kong special administrative region had been politicised and used to enforce so-called national security since pro-democracy protests erupted in 2019.
“In Hong Kong, 'national security' means you disagree with the government,” he said. “That extends to the role of HKETO; it is also used to punish people who disagree with the government. Having a new function, like doing espionage work, surveilling dissidents, I don’t think we are that surprised.”
Concerns Over Data Access
However, one key aspect of the trial caused Law sharp concern: the access that Wai, the younger man, had as a UK Border Force official and volunteer special constable with the City of London police. In a message using a derogatory term for pro-democracy protesters, the court heard that the dual British-Chinese national boasted he could tally monthly totals of “cockroaches” entering the UK.
“He had access to the system that contains information on us,” said Law. “I think there’s a part of the evidence showing that he used those systems to search for addresses or any other sensitive personal information for me. I can only do so much to protect myself. I can try to spot anyone following me and take different routes to get rid of them. I can hide my digital footprints. But I can’t not give details to the [British] government, and if their databases are so accessible and there are no safeguards to protect people like us, who are obviously targets of intelligence and secret operations from hostile governments, then that is a worry.”
Broader Threat to Hong Kong Diaspora
In evidence given last year by Hong Kong Aid (HKA), an NGO that assists asylum seekers in the UK, to parliament’s joint committee on human rights, the threat posed by Chinese authorities when armed with such data stood out. In 2024, they reported, the addresses of Hongkongers in Britain had been exposed online, and anti-immigration protesters were urged to “visit” them. HKA wrote: “The messages from an anonymous user incite anti-immigration activists and groups to physically approach the addresses and potentially create riots, creating a serious security concern.”
The NGO’s helpline had been receiving suspicious phone calls from Hong Kong three times a day, consistently, since 2022. It later found that the number from which the calls came was associated with the Hong Kong police. There had been threats made by the Hong Kong national security police to family members of UK-based individuals advocating for democracy. In 2022, the dragging of a Hong Kong pro-democracy protester into the Chinese consulate in Manchester, where he was beaten, was said to highlight “the People’s Republic of China’s willingness to extend repression on to UK soil”.
Growing Fear Among Hong Kong Diaspora
In January, the UK government approved plans for a new, large Chinese embassy at Royal Mint Court in London, ending years of fraught debate over security risks. For Law and others, the risks are just as real right now. “The Hong Kong diaspora in the UK has become increasingly fearful,” HKA wrote in its submission. “Many avoid political engagement, stop attending community events, and self-censor to avoid repercussions.”
That rang true for Law. He takes no risks, offers the Chinese authorities few opportunities, and the outcome of the trial will not change that: “I am cautious about things.”
