Current location:Planet Pages news portal > world
Revealed: Parliamentary aide, 29, and an ex
Planet Pages news portal2024-05-21 16:55:34【world】2People have gathered around
IntroductionA parliamentary aide and a teacher who were yesterday charged with passing secrets to Beijing taught
A parliamentary aide and a teacher who were yesterday charged with passing secrets to Beijing taught together at a school in China.
Chris Cash, 29, a former director of an influential China policy group with links to security minister Tom Tugendhat and foreign affairs committee chairman Alicia Kearns, is accused of passing on 'information that might be useful to an enemy'.
His former colleague Christopher Berry, 32, was charged with the same espionage offences under the Official Secrets Act.
It can now be revealed that the two alleged spies both secured teaching jobs in the country.
As young graduates, they taught together at Hangzhou Oriental Middle School near Shanghai in 2018.
Parliamentary aide Chris Cash (left) and teacher Christopher Berry, who were yesterday charged with passing secrets to Beijing, taught together at a school in China
READ MORE: Parliamentary researcher, 29, is charged with spying for China: GP's public school boy son is charged alongside man, 32, for offence under Official Secrets Act after probe by counter terror cops
AdvertisementThe son of a GP, Cash enjoyed a privileged upbringing, attending the £5,000-a-term George Watson's College in Edinburgh before studying at the University of St Andrews.
He taught English for two years in China then returned to the UK to study for an MSc in China and globalisation at King's College London. In 2021, he started work in Parliament as a researcher employed by Ms Kearns.
Cash worked for the China Research Group which was set up by Mr Tugendhat, but abruptly disappeared from Westminster after his arrest last March.
He later released a statement through the law firm Birnberg Peirce, saying the allegations were 'against everything I stand for'.
Cash said at the time he had spent his career 'trying to educate others about the challenge and threats presented by the Chinese Communist Party'.
Berry initially taught economics and English in China, but later moved to promoting Chinese landmarks, making YouTube videos about heritage sites and extolling the virtues of Zhejiang province's lakes.
In an online blog, he posted clips describing a typical day as a teacher in China.
The father-of-one is understood to have returned to the UK a number of years ago with his Chinese wife and now works in digital marketing.
Cash (far right) is pictured with Tory MP Alicia Kearns (left) and Steven Lynch, former managing director of the British Chamber of Commerce in China (middle)
Cash, who insists he is 'completely innocent', grew up in a wealthy suburb of Edinburgh and attended £5,000-a-term George Watson's College
Neighbours last night told how Berry and his wife, along with their young son, had moved back to the family home in Witney, Oxfordshire.
One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: 'I believe he went over to teach English as a foreign language, met her over there and stayed. They seem lovely.'
The two men are accused of providing secret information to a foreign state by 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.
Cash is charged with breaching section one of the 1911 Official Secrets Act between January 2022 and February last year. Berry is accused of committing the same offence between December 2021 and February 2023.
The two defendants will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday.
In a YouTube video posted two years ago, Chris Berry praises a lake in the Zhejiang province
Berry, 32, from Oxfordshire, is accused of spying between December 28, 2021 and February 3, 2023, under the Official Secrets Act 1911. He previously taught in the Hangzhou region
Berry previously taught economics and English in the Hangzhou region, in eastern China
Nick Price, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's special crime and counterterrorism division, said: 'The CPS counterterrorism division has today authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge two men with espionage offences.'
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met Police's counterterrorism command, said: 'This has been an extremely complex investigation into what are very serious allegations. We've worked closely with the CPS as our investigation has progressed.'
Yesterday China dismissed the charges as a 'political farce'.
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London said it was 'completely fabricated and nothing but malicious slander' to suggest Beijing was suspected of 'stealing British intelligence'.
'We firmly oppose it and urge the UK side to stop anti-China political manipulation and stop putting on such self-staged political farce,' the spokesman said.
Address of this article:http://frenchpolynesia.popular-vines.com/html-21f399657.html
Very good!(9)
Related articles
- Yu Darvish extends scoreless innings streak to 25 in Padres' 9
- Eurovision Song Contest 2024: How BBC newsreader Maryam Moshiri, who has joined the presenting line
- Partner of pregnant Hollyoaks star Frankie Jules
- Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are returning to reality TV! Stars are teaming up for a new show
- Four people killed in a house explosion in southwestern Missouri
- Rafael Nadal shows he's not quite ready for retirement in a comeback win at the Italian Open
- Day by day, China is slowly chipping away at our social fabric
- Sudanese paramilitary forces have carried out ethnic cleansing in Darfur, rights group says
- Bella Hadid goes braless in a thigh
- Brits face summer holiday hell as M25 is set to shut AGAIN in August
Popular articles
Recommended
Inquiry slams UK authorities for failures that killed thousands in infected blood scandal
Arrow McLaren selects Pourchaire as replacement driver for the injured Malukas
Democratic ex
Court rejects Hunter Biden's appeal in gun case, setting stage for trial to begin next month
The government wants to buy their flood
Jodie Turner
New Biden administration rule aims to speed up asylum screening for limited group of migrants
NCAA removes cap on official recruiting visits in basketball to deal with unlimited transfers
Links
- Cheers and flames as Orthodox worshipers greet the ancient ceremony of the 'Holy Fire'
- Afghanistan's only female diplomat resigns in India after gold smuggling allegations
- Kansas has a new border security mission and tougher penalties for killing police dogs
- Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Gujarat Titans to stay alive in IPL
- Sadie Sink flashes her bra in a sleek black co
- Leprosy spread between people and red SQUIRRELS in medieval England, study reveals
- Real Madrid wins the Spanish league after Barcelona loses at Girona
- A look back at all the times Margot Robbie has served as a bridesmaid
- A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
- London, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Mayor Sadiq Khan wins historic third term