National Security Strategy, led by Powell, which gave a balanced view of China. It stopped short of referring to it as an “enemy” state.
“There had been very little chatter about the case until late August, when, suddenly, it appeared to be at the top of Ollie’s [Robbins] agenda. It was like the Foreign Office had belatedly woken up to the fact that this trial was going to be a big problem for the UK’s relationship with China. There was clearly concern about China’s response to it and questions were being asked about it.”
The main “action point” was for the attorney-general’s office, which is in charge of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), to relay some of the concerns raised with the prosecution. A government spokeswoman said: “It is untrue to say that concerns about the evidence were given to the CPS following this meeting.” The source added: “There was absolutely no political interference with the evidence provided in this case. That evidence had already been submitted before the meeting.”
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On Sep 15, the case against Chris Cash and his friend Chris Berry collapsed.
Cash used to work as a China specialist for two Conservative backbenchers, Tom Tugendhat and Alicia Kearns. He had a parliamentary pass and was plugged into Westminster’s gossip network during 2022 — a year of Conservative turmoil in Westminster, three prime ministers and future policy uncertainty over China.
During that time, Cash was in close contact with Berry, who was then a teacher based in Hangzhou, eastern China, where the Britons had met 5 years earlier. They discussed politics constantly, using an encrypted app. Cash was alleged to be Berry’s source, passing on information from Westminster in voice notes and messages that were recovered by the Met Police’s SO15 unit, which investigates espionage threats.
The CPS claim a “Chinese intelligence agent” commissioned at least 34 reports from Berry on subjects of political interest, ten of which were deemed prejudicial to national security.
In evidence due to be presented to the jury, it is also alleged Berry met Cai Qi, an ally of Xi often described as his unofficial chief of staff, in July 2022. Berry is said to have told Cash, who was at the time working for the China Research Group of Conservative MPs, about the meeting in a voice note. Cash responded: “You’re in spy territory now.”
Cai’s alleged role in the espionage case has shocked and alarmed China experts.
Witnesses in the case are also furious, and increasingly anxious, that they have not been told what information about them was said to have been handed to China by the alleged spies.
Cash was charged with breaching section one of the 1911 Official Secrets Act (OSA) between Jan 2022 and Feb 2023. The allegations involve obtaining, collecting, recording, publishing or communicating notes, documents or information which might be, or were intended to be, directly or indirectly useful to an enemy. Berry was accused of committing the same offence between Dec 2021 and Feb 2023. Both men deny the charges.
The CPS asked Collins to provide evidence that China represented an “ongoing threat”, according to a source familiar with the discussions. It followed his testimony in an earlier case against three Bulgarians accused of spying for Russia, a country he described in his evidence as an “acute ongoing threat”. “The CPS believed that his inability to say something similar was a problem,” the source said. “Collins was given over 14 months [since Labour came to power] to come up with a form of words and he didn’t — despite the fact that the CPS had assumed it would be a formality.”
It’s an “open secret” in the Cabinet Office for months that CPS requests for Collins to provide firmer evidence had not been forthcoming despite claims he had acted unilaterally and was given “full freedom to provide evidence without interference”.
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For two weeks after the September meeting, Whitehall was awash with rumours that the case was “wobbling”.
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