The MI5 alert names two headhunters Amanda Qiu, of BR-YR Executive Search, and Shirly Shen, of Internship Union, who were said to be using LinkedIn profiles to reach out on behalf of 
Ministry of State Security.
Both appear to be young women but it is not known if the photographs are genuine.
The headhunters have been tasked by Beijing to seek out civil servants in key roles hoping to trick them into sharing secret information on topics like UK government policy, military capability and geopolitical issues.
Amanda Qiu and Shirly Shen run teams of headhunters at BP-YR Executive Search and Internship Union, which act as a recruitment front for Chinese intellgence sending out a blizzard of job adverts hoping to snare Government staff.
While the initial contact may be on a job platform it will quickly move to communications on an encrypted platform.
Targets are then likely to experience increased requests for reports on non-public, exclusive and sensitive information, or to gather information from their networks and connections.
The practice usually involves payment through unconventional means such as cryptocurrency, or payment from accounts that do not share the company name.
Once hooked, victims can be enticed into flying to a non-Western country where they are directly pressed into spying for Beijing.
Last year, Qiu’s BP-YR Executive Search posted a job advert on LinkedIn for a “part-time adviser” who would be paid up to €20,000 (£17,600) a year to write 5 to 10 reports on “the ongoing policy which may affect foreign business in your country (UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy etc)”.
The advert said the reports would be for Power Glory Battery Tech, a Chinese lithium battery company. It asked for a person who was “an expert or an ‘insider’ regarding to either politics or the economy” and who had previous experience in government, colleges or thinktanks, and offered them one to two free trips to Asia each year.
telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1
theguardian.com/world/2025/nov
thetimes.com/article/how-ch
Ministry of State Security.
Both appear to be young women but it is not known if the photographs are genuine.
The headhunters have been tasked by Beijing to seek out civil servants in key roles hoping to trick them into sharing secret information on topics like UK government policy, military capability and geopolitical issues.
Amanda Qiu and Shirly Shen run teams of headhunters at BP-YR Executive Search and Internship Union, which act as a recruitment front for Chinese intellgence sending out a blizzard of job adverts hoping to snare Government staff.
While the initial contact may be on a job platform it will quickly move to communications on an encrypted platform.
Targets are then likely to experience increased requests for reports on non-public, exclusive and sensitive information, or to gather information from their networks and connections.
The practice usually involves payment through unconventional means such as cryptocurrency, or payment from accounts that do not share the company name.
Once hooked, victims can be enticed into flying to a non-Western country where they are directly pressed into spying for Beijing.
Last year, Qiu’s BP-YR Executive Search posted a job advert on LinkedIn for a “part-time adviser” who would be paid up to €20,000 (£17,600) a year to write 5 to 10 reports on “the ongoing policy which may affect foreign business in your country (UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy etc)”.
The advert said the reports would be for Power Glory Battery Tech, a Chinese lithium battery company. It asked for a person who was “an expert or an ‘insider’ regarding to either politics or the economy” and who had previous experience in government, colleges or thinktanks, and offered them one to two free trips to Asia each year.
telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1
theguardian.com/world/2025/nov
thetimes.com/article/how-ch
Quote
Byron Wan
@Byron_Wan
MI5 has issued an espionage alert to MPs and peers warning that two people linked to the Ministry of State Security are actively seeking to recruit parliamentarians.
The two, who operate as headhunters on LinkedIn aiming to obtain “non-public and insider insights”, are also
Show more Ministry of State Security are actively seeking to recruit parliamentarians.
The two, who operate as headhunters on LinkedIn aiming to obtain “non-public and insider insights”, are also