Steve Tsang, the Director of the SOAS China Institute at the University of London, says: “This case underlines the fact that China poses a serious and insidious threat to our democracy and we must ask our politicians, academics and journalists to be vigilant of CCP effort to buy influence and other forms of infiltration.”

Professor Tsang adds: “China’s efforts to influence Western democracies have focused on cultivating members of parliament, especially where a new arrival or a leading figure in an opposition party looks as though may be on track to become a minister of state at a later stage.”

Similar efforts by the Chinese Intelligence Agency to gain influence have been uncovered in Australia.

“While all the facts are still out, this case has echoes of similar episodes in Australia: donations to political parties and politicians from Chinese citizens and CCP-associated Australian citizens with the intention of generating pro-China statements and policy positions,” notes Dr Bates Gill, professor of security studies at Macquarie University in Sydney.

“However, Australia and the UK are not alone in this. The United Front Work Department is actively cultivating politicians and opinion-shapers around the world,” says Dr Gill, who is also a Senior Associate Fellow with the Royal United Services Institute in London.

In the United States, intelligence agencies have been taking an increasingly high profile position on China. In 2018, the US Justice Department unveiled its “China Initiative,” to counter thefts of trade secrets and other forms of economic espionage conducted by – or for the benefit of – the Chinese government. FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the bureau was opening a new China-related counterintelligence case about every 10 hours.

Dr Gill says: “Beginning under President Trump and continuing under President Biden, the United States has launched a highly public all-of-government effort to push back on Chinese influence and espionage activities. This has included sharp scrutiny of university research programmes, the closure of the PRC consulate in Houston, and – as in the UK – designating Chinese media outlets as agents of the PRC.”

In 2020, the UK government expelled three Chinese citizens who had been working in Britain on journalists` visas, claiming that they had been involved in espionage.

Those expulsions were conducted discreetly but since then, spymasters from the UK`s intelligence services appear to have been encouraged by their well-resourced American counterparts in becoming more public when voicing their concerns about China.

In December 2021, Richard Moore, the head of M16, said that the rise of China was the single greatest priority of his foreign intelligence agency. He claimed that Beijing was conducting espionage activities against the UK, with a focus on government and people involved in the technology sector.

Richard Moore also said: “They (The Chinese state agents) monitor and attempt to exercise influence over the Chinese diaspora.”

According to Professor Tsang of SOAS: “Under Xi Jinping, China now demands members of the Chinese diaspora to be loyal to mother China.” But he cautions that “it would be wrong to see a Communist Party agent in every ethnic Chinese, as most overseas Chinese ignore Xi and support democracy. I fear a backlash against them will enable the Communist Party to recruit agents.”

Dr Bates Gill also warns against alienating ethnic Chinese. “In my view, members of the Chinese diaspora are more often the targets of CCP influence activities and in that sense know better than most how to resist the pressure,” he says.

In terms of press coverage of UK politics, another scandal has taken precedence over the case of Ms Lee and M15`s concerns about Chinese influence.

The media is transfixed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson`s attempts to cover-up parties held at his official residence, 10 Downing Street, during the coronavirus lockdown. After weeks of bad publicity, there is now an open revolt within the Conservative party. Several members have called on Mr Johnson to resign and one former supporter has defected to the opposition Labour side.

The turmoil will inevitably delay parliament from agreeing complex legislation relating to the role of lobbyists, or a reform of the Official Secrets Act to make it easier to prosecute foreign spies.

With formidable obstacles standing in the way of tough political action, the intelligence services seem to have decided to speed up the process of exposing China by taking matters into their own hands, with the support of the Speaker of the Parliament. The press were delighted to have another scandal to fill their pages, alongside the “partygate” saga, which might unseat the British prime minister.