Hong Kong's UK Spy Games Demand a Reckoning

Many places have representative offices in the UK, from Canadian provinces to Spanish regions to outposts of the former British empire such as Bermuda. The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office is unusual in enjoying consular-style privileges that are generally only available to national governments — staff immunity for official acts, tax and customs advantages and inviolable premises. When these benefits were granted, it was never imagined that the office would become an arm of China’s transnational repression operations.

HKETO office manager Bill Yuen Chung-biu, 65, and another man, Peter Wai Chi-Leung, 38, were convicted at the Old Bailey in London on Thursday of assisting a foreign intelligence service. Yuen, a retired Hong Kong police superintendent, gave tasks to Wai, a UK Border Force officer and City of London Police special constable, that included carrying out surveillance on Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigners in Britain, the court was told. Wai, who used his access to the UK immigration database to track the dissidents, was paid from the HKETO bank account.