2 men are on trial in the UK for spying on the Hong Kong diaspora

London — A former Hong Kong police officer and a UK border officer acted as undercover law enforcement or intelligence agents in Britain on behalf of the Chinese government, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.

Bill Yuen, 65, and Peter Wai, 38, both Chinese and British nationals, are on trial on charges of breaching the National Security Act by aiding a foreign spy service.

“The defendants engaged in shadow policing operations on behalf of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and thereby the People’s Republic of China,” prosecutor Duncan Atkinson said at London’s Central Criminal Court.

The two acted as legitimate law enforcement to conduct surveillance and gather information about individuals Hong Kong considered “persons of interest,” such as pro-democracy supporters, Atkinson said.

Yuen was previously a superintendent in the Hong Kong Police at the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office in London.

Vai worked as a UK Border Force officer and a special city constable in London and ran a private security company.

Yuen’s work went beyond his job description as office manager of the Hong Kong Trade Office, prosecutors said. He is accused of helping Hong Kong gather intelligence on pro-democracy activists and politicians who have moved to the UK in recent years after authorities in the Asian financial center introduced sweeping national security legislation.

Yuen assigned tasks to Y who accused him of using police systems to gather information for his private work for espionage. Wai was paid from a trade office account, prosecutors said.

The phone messages led to the surveillance of two former Hong Kong legislators, Nathan Law, and their interest extends beyond Hong Kong activists, whom they call “cockroaches”.

Wei Yuen told Wei to pay special attention to members of parliament or government employees and provided the names of prominent politicians, including Conservative lawmaker Ian Duncan Smith, co-chair of the China Inter-Parliamentary Alliance in 2023.

Yuen and Wai have pleaded not guilty to violating the National Security Act by aiding a foreign intelligence service between December 2023 and May 2024 and committing foreign interference by trying to force their way into their home. Y has denied a separate allegation of misconduct in public office.

The trial is expected to last nine weeks.