I must say I’m highly suspicious of this recent – albeit mild – fuss about Chinese espionage at the heart of UK government. In the first place, all countries ‘spy’ on each other, in one way or another, and always have done. (See my Plots and Paranoia.) Secondly: the present case – not yet brought to trial – appears to feature a humble ‘research assistant’ with connections, through his or her research, to some minor Tory politicians, who is unlikely to reveal anything that can’t be found out from reading, for example, Hansard, or other open sources in the public domain. Thirdly: isn’t this rather old-hat, reminiscent of the great age of popular spy novels and films (usually with a Cold War setting); and far less significant and scary in this post-secrecy age of CVTV cameras, computer hacking, social media and the rest, when we don’t expect anyone to be able to keep secrets, State or otherwise, any more? Maybe that’s why not more is being made of this. And fourthly: in the age when they did seem to be important, these revelations of foreign espionage were sometimes used to divert public attention away from other more important government failings and scandals; of which there are, of course, myriads today. No better scapegoat than a cunning yellow one.
One of these present scandals may be the extent of Russian covert interference in British politics, recently and currently. There’s a lot just now on Facebook about Russian oligarch millions funding the Conservative party and UKIP; which if true is clearly suspicious, and could be far more damaging to British national interests than anything a few Chinese ‘moles’ could do. We know that Brexit, for example, was considered to be good for Russia at the time. Wasn’t there supposed to be a government enquiry into this a couple of years ago, which should have reported by now? Whatever became of that?
Of course my suspicions may be over-influenced by the material that is allowed to get through to me by Facebook’s algorithms; which are why it’s so difficult to get to the bottom of almost anything these days. If, that is, there is a ‘bottom’.
Porter’s Pensées 
And you are right to be suspicious. This allegation seems just another part of the anti China campaign being promoted by the Tory “Right” presumably to please the US Neocons, and hopefully receive some kind of benefit from them.
The PRC poses no threat whatsoever to the UK, or UK interests. The only threat it poses to US interests is that Pacific nations may well decide to become less dependent on the US, and more friendly to China (as are many developing countries…).
I am uncertain how Brexit was supposed to benefit Russia. It has driven the UK further into the US fold, (dominion…?), not away from it. Macron is surely correct when he says the EU must have a policy independent from the US. Regrettably the UK does not.
Like the PRC, Russia poses no threat to the UK or its interests. In fact, it poses no threat to the EU. The Ukraine crisis arose because NATO reneged on its pledge not to “expand an inch Eastwards”, followed by the (apparently purposeful..) breach of the Minsk Agreements.
A peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia was imminent…until Johnson scurried to Ukraine to persuade (bribe…?) Zelensky otherwise. I wonder what he got for that…
The net beneficiary has been the US military industrial complex…and the US ruling elite.
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