Chinese embassy in UK condemns hyping up fabricated ‘Chinese espionage threat’; Five Eyes’ accusation a crafted rhetorical trap to fuel ‘China threat’ narrative: Chinese expert

"The allegation of so-called 'Chinese espionage threat' is entirely fabricated and constitutes malicious slander. We strongly condemn this," said a spokesperson from the Chinese Embassy in UK when asked to comment on the so-called "warning" issued by the UK Security Service (MI5), together with intelligence agencies from other "Five Eyes" countries, alleging that Chinese intelligence services are approaching individuals in Western countries through fake online recruitment schemes in order to steal military, political, and technological intelligence, according to the embassy on Thursday.

It must be pointed out that the "Five Eyes" are the world's largest intelligence network. Its members have engaged in unscrupulous espionage and intelligence-gathering activities around the globe. They are the real threat to peace-loving countries, the spokesperson said.

"We urge the UK side to immediately stop this clumsy self-staged show of thief crying catch thief. Otherwise, it will only bring shame upon itself," the spokesperson continued.

Chinese Foreign Ministry also responded on the same day. Spokesperson Mao Ning said as the world's largest intelligence cooperation network, the "Five Eyes" has long engaged in massive systemic espionage all over the world. It is ironic that such an organization is accusing China of "spy threat."

According to Reuters on Wednesday local time, security agencies from the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand claimed that Chinese military intelligence services ultimately seek to "acquire privileged military, political and economic intelligence that can provide China with a strategic and tactical advantage over the Five Eyes."

A Chinese expert told the Global Times on Thursday that the Five Eyes Alliance's current hype over the so-called "Chinese espionage threat" is essentially a carefully crafted rhetorical trap. Ostensibly framed as an effort to safeguard "national security," the campaign is in reality designed to fuel the "China threat" narrative, the expert stressed. 

Regarding similar allegations, China has stated its position more than once. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a press conference in November 2025 that China never interferes in other countries' internal affairs and has absolutely no interest in the so-called "intelligence" of the UK Parliament.

The response came after MI5 in 2025 issued an official warning to British politicians about two LinkedIn accounts that it claimed were posing as "headhunters" but were in fact operating on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of State Security. 

 "Time to stop those phantom allegations and the false projection," the spokesperson said at the time.

In global geopolitics, the Five Eyes ranks among the world's largest intelligence surveillance blocs, having long leveraged its technological advantages to conduct indiscriminate mass surveillance across the globe, Wang Hanyi, a research fellow at the Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times on Thursday. Wang noted that the bloc's credibility is therefore highly suspect when it loudly hypes alleged "Chinese espionage threat." 

Wang said that the joint initiative results from a mix of domestic pressures and the strategy to contain China. Some Five Eyes countries are plagued by weak economic growth, worsening social conflicts and rising political polarization. Against this backdrop, exaggerating external threats serves as an easy tool to divert domestic disputes and consolidate political consensus, the expert added.

The Reuters report noted on Wednesday that although there have been similar so-called warnings from individual countries in the past, the joint bulletin was described as unprecedented.

"Such an 'unprecedented' scale stems from a collective anti-China anxiety and coordinated escalation of containment strategies against China," Wang said.

Their practice will severely disrupt regular people-to-people exchanges, normal economic and trade cooperation between China and certain Western countries, and erode the long-built foundation for global cooperation, the expert noted.