A former Border Force officer and a former Hong Kong police official were sentenced Thursday at the Old Bailey for working on behalf of Chinese intelligence inside the United Kingdom, in a case that exposed what detectives described as a shadow policing operation conducted on behalf of the Hong Kong authorities and, by extension, the Chinese state.
Chi Leung "Peter" Wai, 40, received 10 years. Chung Biu "Bill" Yuen, 65, was sentenced to eight years. Both were found guilty after a trial last month of assisting a foreign intelligence service, an offense under the National Security Act. Wai was also convicted of misconduct in public office.
Judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told both men during sentencing that their actions "threaten the sovereignty of the state."
According to BBC News, Wai began working as a Border Force officer at Heathrow Airport in December 2020, after previously serving with the Metropolitan Police from 2015 to 2019 and spending eight years in the Royal Navy. Once at Heathrow, he used access to a vast Home Office database of information about foreign nationals to trace Hong Kongers who had fled pro-democracy crackdowns.
When Wai started working at Heathrow, he sent a message to former chief superintendent of Hong Kong Police's Criminal Intelligence Bureau Eddie Ma, who still had ties to the Chinese state. "Will not let any cockroaches in," Wai wrote.
Yuen served as the office manager of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London and became Wai's contact with Chinese authorities. Wai received six years for assisting a foreign intelligence service and four additional years for misconduct in public office.
During the May trial, the court heard that special attention was paid to British politicians, including Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith.
In the public gallery Thursday, pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong watched as the sentences were delivered. One activist present has had a HK$1 million bounty, equivalent to roughly £100,000, placed on her by Hong Kong authorities.
Commander Helen Flanagan, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, issued a direct warning in a statement following sentencing. "I want to be really clear that if you are working on behalf of a foreign state, that we in counter-terrorism policing and with our partners will identify who you are and bring the full force of the National Security Act upon you," she said.
