The United Kingdom must “wake up” to the increasing threat that is Chinese espionage, the former head of the country’s MI6 intelligence agency has said.
Alex Younger, the former head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI6, has warned of the ever-increasing threat China poses to Britain, with the UK in particular now needing to “wake up” to the spy activities of the Communist nation in the west.
Britain, from being strongly pro-China in recent memory has grown more hawkish in recent years and months, with recent controversy over alleged Chinese spy balloons over North America only adding to ongoing tensions.
Speaking to the state-owned BBC, Younger emphasised that the UK was now in “competition” with China, arguing that his country should not tolerate the country’s brazen attempts at spying.
“This is a gross and really visible transgression of the sovereignty of many nations,” the former MI6 head remarked in regard to the ongoing balloon scandal, saying that the issue proved there was “no trust” between China and the West.
“We need to wake up to this,” he continued. “We need to double down on the strengths that we possess to face this systemic competition that’s going on.”
Younger also suggested that China had really “underestimated” the West with this latest diplomatic row, suggesting that the Communist regime did not seem to understand how much of an impact this would have on its relations with the United States and its allies.
He also said that it was “eminently possible” that there was U.S. technology being used in spy balloons deployed by China, adding that if American authorities confirm this to be the case via the recent wreckage they have recovered, it will fuel further tensions and tech divergences between the two countries.
The former MI6 boss is not the only UK security bigwig concerned about the spy balloon scandal, with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace recently describing the overall “global threat picture” between the West and its adversaries as recently “changing for the worse”.
Such warnings mark an overall increased level of concern, with the UK along with NATO allies making ever more warnings as to the threat China poses to them.
The citing of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), some of which are thought to be Chinese spy balloons, has only made tensions worse, with the United States now regularly shooting down unidentified objects flying over North America in response to what they believe could be an intelligence threat.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has meanwhile said that the UK will follow suit should any of the objects appear over the country, with the Tory leader saying that the nation’s military has jets on standby to deal with any apparent threat.
“We’ll do whatever it takes to keep the country safe,” he said in an interview with the BBC, adding that there were multiple Typhoon fighter jets available at all times to deal with any apparent situation in Britain’s skies.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.