British man accused of spying for China says he was 'fall guy' for intelligence agencies

Résumé détaillé

Chris Cash, 31, told of the moment counter-terror officers barged into his parents' home over messages he sent to a friend he had met while teaching English in China

A British man charged with spying for China has claimed he was a "convenient fall guy" for intelligence agencies.

Former parliamentary researcher Chris Cash was one of two men charged with spying for a foreign power in 2024 amid claims that that he had gathered and provided information on MPs to a high-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party.

The case against both men was dropped the following year after prosecutors found the evidence did not meet the standard required for a conviction.

Mr Cash has now spoken about the incident for the first time and said he believes he was a "convenient" target at a time when officials wanted to emphasise security threats.

Now aged 31, he revealed how he had moved to Guangzhou in his mid-20s after graduating from St Andrews, spending time teaching English with the British Council and touring the region, visiting protests in Hong Kong in late 2019.

He moved back to Britain at the end of that year, beginning an internship with the China Research Group group of Tory MPs to help inform policy on China.

In the early hours of March 13 2023, he was woken by the sound of counter-terror police forcing entry into his parents' house in Edinburgh, where he had been staying after attending a Six Nations match.

Describing the moment officers barged into the family home, he told the BBC: "The door opened, and four counter-terror police officers burst into my room. they told me to sit up and not to touch anything, and that I was under arrest for breaching the Official Secrets Act 1911 - and that the country that I was allegedly spying for was China.

"I didn't have any connection to the Chinese state, so I was racking my brain as to what this could be about."

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