Member of British Parliament (MP) for Tonbridge and former Minister of State for Security Tom Tugendhat said on Monday that the country's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency MI5 told the government, when he was part of it, that China should be relegated to the higher of two tiers of a threat as defined by the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS).
"I was assured by the same officials who sit in the box advising [incumbent Minister of State for Security David Jarvis] that it was ready to go by the end of the year. Clearly, the advice has changed," Tugendhat told the House of Commons. "There's only one thing in the department that's changed, and that’s the party leading it. ... [B]ut I'm delighted that it will be ready to go by the summer. Better late than never."
The discussion at the Commons came amid Chinese-born businessman Yang Tengbo, who ran some of its enterprises in Britain, was accused of being a spy for his native country.
