Chinese spies are alleged to have committed acts of espionage within the U.K. Recently, MI5 warned UK parliamentarians of a Chinese spy plot to create fake Linkedin headhunting profiles in order to forward business propositions to British politicians. Outraged by the British government’s accusations of Chinese espionage, Beijing has vehemently denied any wrongdoing; it chose to go on the attack instead.
Western leaders face a hard truth: Using its vast political and economic leverage through strong economic trade ties with various nations, part of China’s long game is to preserve its national security by infiltrating other nations’ states’ intelligence, education, and politics, as well as sometimes targeting prominent individuals.
The most recent controversy attesting to the vast efforts of Chinese spycraft was the Huawei saga. Various countries, including the U.S., Taiwan, France, Australia and the UK, moved to ban Huawei as a telecommunication network because of surveillance and spying concerns.
This time, individuals whose LinkedIn profile names were Amanda Qiu & Shirly Chen, were brought to the attention of British intelligence. The profiles have since been deleted.
Speaking to the UK Parliament, Britain’s security minister, Dan Jarvis, spoke to parliament about “a covert and calculated attempt.”
“MI5 has stated that this activity is being carried out by a group of Chinese intelligence officers, often masked through the use of cover companies or external headhunters.”
China aggressively denied the allegations: the Chinese embassy in London called it a “pure fabrication and malicious slander.”
“We strongly condemn such despicable moves of the UK side and have lodged stern representations with them.”
“We urge the UK side to immediately stop this self-staged charade of false accusations and self-aggrandisement and stop going further down the wrong path of undermining China-UK relations.”
At its core, the embassy’s response was rooted in wolf warrior rhetoric. According to Beijing, any suggestion of wrongdoing is ‘slanderous’ libels which only hurt the relationship between nations. The suggestion that China-U.K relations would be ‘undermined’ is a quintessential example of the confrontational, victim-playing foreign policy designed to stifle, threaten and nullify any criticism of the CCP nefarious espionage operations in foreign countries.
China can do no wrong in China’s eyes, and the CCP wants the world to believe that the world is wrong to ever question China’s integrity.
More broadly, author Peter Martin said of the strategy:
“They have become far more strident and assertive—exhibiting behaviour that ranges from storming out of an international meeting to shouting at foreign counterparts and even insulting foreign leaders.”
International diplomacy is a tricky business. Nations must pick their battles, especially when there is an interdependent relationship at play. China is the UK’s 5th largest trading partner, and in the first quarter of 2025, exports to the Asian nation increased by 12.1%.
Clearly, there are huge economic benefits to trade with China, but U.K. lawmakers must pause to consider the cost to its own sovereignty. Reliance on trade with a more powerful but untrusted ‘ally’ creates a power vacuum in which the wolf warrior strategy can thrive: As long as Western nations continue to depend on economic ties with China, the more leverage Beijing has to play the WWD.
