MI6 recruited workers from China as spies, says Beijing

Beijing has accused Britain's MI6 of recruiting Chinese state employees as spies as the two countries traded allegations of espionage.

- MAROOSHA MUZAFFAR

China's Ministry of State Security said in a statement yesterday that it had cracked a "major espionage case" uncovering two moles "planted by the British side within our ranks".

It identified the suspected moles as a man surnamed Wang and his wife Zhou who both worked in sensitive departments of a Chinese state agency. Last month, Britain charged three people for spying for Hong Kong’s intelligence service. Similar charges were made in April against two people accused of spying for China, one of them a former researcher for a prominent Conservative Party lawmaker.