London jury convicts two men of spying for Hong Kong and China

Two men who tracked Hong Kong dissidents in Britain were convicted at the Old Bailey, in a ruling that pushed authoritarian surveillance into the middle of a democracy and spotlighted the dangers facing exiled activists. Chung Biu Bill Yuen, 65, and Chi Leung Peter Wai, 40, were found guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service, a case that may be the first conviction in Britain for spying for Beijing.

Prosecutors said the surveillance ran from December 2023 to May 2024 and targeted prominent pro-democracy figures living in the United Kingdom. The pair were said to have gathered personal details including what cars the dissidents drove, where they lived and which social media accounts they used. The Crown Prosecution Service said the work was organised and funded through the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, the official overseas representative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government.

Yuen was described by prosecutors as a former Hong Kong police officer who worked at the London trade office. Wai, a former UK Border Force officer and special constable with the City of London Police, was also convicted of misconduct in public office for misusing Home Office computer systems to obtain personal data. The jury could not reach a verdict on a separate foreign-interference charge tied to an alleged forced entry into a home in northern England.

The case reached well beyond two defendants and one court. Prosecutors said Hong Kong authorities had placed bounties of up to £100,000 on pro-democracy campaigners, intensifying fears among activists who believed they had found safety in Britain after the 2019 crackdown in Hong Kong. By turning on dissidents already living in Britain, the case showed how pressure from Beijing and Hong Kong can extend far past Asia and into diaspora communities abroad.

The convictions were returned under the National Security Act 2023, which received Royal Assent on 11 July 2023 and was brought into force in part on 20 December 2023. The law created new offences, including assisting a foreign intelligence service, as Britain moved to strengthen its response to espionage, sabotage, disinformation and other state threats.

The diplomatic fallout was immediate. The Chinese embassy in London rejected the case and accused Britain of fabricating the charges. The UK government said it would summon the Chinese ambassador after the verdict, continuing a hardening line that has already seen British officials describe Hong Kong arrest warrants and bounties on overseas activists as transnational repression. Sentencing was scheduled for later, and both men face up to 14 years in prison.