This is not espionage

There is an article in the UK about an aborted prosecution of two men accused of spying for China.

Basically Christopher Cash worked for the China Research Group, a group of Beijing-sceptic Conservative MPs. He had a friend Christopher Berry who was commissioned to do 34 reports for a client, whom he thought was a Chinese corporate wanting to expand into the UK. In reality it was for a Chinese intelligence agent who passed it onto a Politburo member. Cash provided info to Berry for these reports.

None of the info was classified, or about defence issues. It has been described as:

it was said to be material in the public domain on how parliament or British politics works, or uncomplicated analyses – who he thought would win the next election.

It is absolutely normal for foreign governments to be interested in the domestic politics of a country. Over the years I would have had numerous conversations with several dozen Ambassadors or their staff on NZ politics. They’re interested in who may form Government, who may be key Ministers, likely major election issues etc.

Sometimes these are informal chats. Sometimes they are meetings. Sometimes over a meal. Sometimes one on one, sometimes with a dozen or more Ambassadors.

Sadly I have never charged for these. I get the odd meal or coffee in exchange! But I know some embassies in the past have paid government relations firms for advice. I recall a couple of decades ago one lobbyist returned from a meeting with an Asian Embassy, and they were very bemused that they were handed cash in an envelope at the end of the lunch to pay the invoice in advance!

Most of the Ambassadors or staff I have dealt with have been what you would call friendly countries, but not universally, In the 2000s I was acquainted with the Iranian Ambassador and when I got a visa from the Embassy to visit there in 2009, he asked if I could take some official papers over to Tehran for him, as he thought I would be more reliable than the diplomatic courier! If he had followed up, I would have declined, as I didn’t fancy explaining to a border officer why I had Iranian Government papers on me! I did take the precaution of getting advice from the then Foreign Minister’s Office.

I am not sure if NZ has any enemies, but I would not give insights to an “enemy” country. While Russia is invading Ukraine, I would politely decline any engagement there. But if the Chinese Embassy asked me to chat to them about how I saw the NZ political environment I would (they have not, by the way). I would probably be far more restrained in my observations than I would to say the Australian High Commissioner though.

So the attempted prosecution of the two men for espionage always seemed an overreach to me. What they were doing is pretty routine in most capitals. It isn’t spying. It wasn’t classified information. It was just political analysis.

Part of the prosecution case may have relied on whether China is officially an enemy of the UK – something which the UK Government might not want to declare in court. So we don’t know why the prosecution was dropped, but I think it was always a very weak case.