Spy chief says China is among UK’S top threats
LONDON – China, which is increasingly flexing its muscles around the world, is one of the biggest threats to Britain and its allies, and a “miscalculation” by Beijing could lead to war, the head of the U.K.’S foreign intelligence agency said Tuesday.
MI6 chief Richard Moore said China, Russia, Iran and international terrorism make up the “big four” security issues facing Britain’s spies in an unstable world where both countries and illicit organizations are racing to exploit fast-changing information technology.
In his first public speech since becoming head of the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, in October 2020, Moore said China is the intelligence agency’s “single greatest priority.”
Calling China “an authoritarian state with different values than ours,” he said Beijing conducts “large-scale espionage operations” against the U.K. and its allies, tries to ”distort public discourse and political decision-making” and exports technology that enables a “web of authoritarian control” around the world.
“Beijing believes its own propaganda about Western frailties and underestimates Washington’s resolve,” Moore added. “The risk of Chinese miscalculation through overconfidence is real.”
Moore said the U.K. also continues “to face an acute threat from Russia.” He said Moscow has sponsored killing attempts, such as the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal in England in 2018, mounts cyberattacks and interferes in other countries’ democratic processes.