The author of a Home Office-sponsored report on the Chinese state and organised crime in the UK was the target of failed honey traps and a suspected attempt to compromise him by a former British police officer, it is claimed.<\/p>\n
Dr David Wilson, whose groundbreaking analysis was declassified in February, has told of multiple attempts to influence him or discredit his work as he sought to examine the policing challenges posed by the Chinese Communist party (CCP) and criminal gangs.<\/p>\n
Among the apparent attempts to interfere with Wilson\u2019s findings \u2013 based on interviews with officials from 14 law enforcement agencies in the UK \u2013 was an approach to him by a former British police officer who had been a Chinese citizen before being naturalised in the UK, he said.<\/p>\n
Wilson said he had been warned during early interviews with former officers in the Hong Kong police force that he would make himself a target for \u201choney traps or bribes\u201d from the Chinese state and organised crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin about two weeks of getting this warning, I receive this phone call,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cIt was someone who I loosely knew. It was an ex-Chinese citizen who was a naturalised British citizen.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had been part of a British law enforcement institution. He said: \u2018Listen, why don\u2019t you meet me at this specific Chinese restaurant?\u2019 Straight away, as soon as he said that, I knew the restaurant, I knew who owned it, and I knew where this was going, because I\u2019d been warned about it, and it was literally word for word.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Wilson, the caller said he had \u201csome people who can help you\u201d but declined to offer any further information on their identities. \u201c\u2018It doesn\u2019t matter, there\u2019s a few people, why don\u2019t you come along and just see what they\u2019ve got to say?\u2019 I said: \u2018Thanks very much, really kind of you, but actually, no.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson, a former police inspector who is the West Midlands regional coordinator for the national Organised Immigration Crime Domestic Taskforce, said he was also targeted through his LinkedIn account as he carried out his research.<\/p>\n
He said he had \u201caround 20 to 25 connection requests\u201d from women with \u201cnothing on their profile at all, wanting to contact me \u2013 some of them clearly false personas\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing on the profile. They haven\u2019t posted anything, there was no detail. It was just a photograph of a very, very beautiful woman. Before I started, I\u2019d been on LinkedIn for 10 years. No one ever contacted me,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
The most direct message, he said, was from a man who described himself as a businessman. \u201cSomeone contacted me again and said: \u2018Listen, I\u2019m very interested in what you\u2019re doing\u2019,\u201d said Wilson. The man went on to claim he had \u201cties to the Chinese government, very close ties, and I have people who can really help you with this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Wilson said: \u201cIt was really persistent. \u2018The Chinese are such wonderful people. They\u2019re so generous. Look at all these links that I\u2019m sending you about the good work that they\u2019ve done.\u2019 I said my loyalty is to the government and to the UK, not the Chinese government. In the end, I said: \u2018Listen, I\u2019ve reported your profile to the appropriate authorities. You need to stop contacting me now.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week a bulletin was released by the Five Eyes powers \u2013 the UK, US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand \u2013 highlighting an \u201caggressive\u201d online strategy<\/a>, including on LinkedIn, where spies for Beijing military intelligence pose as workers acting on behalf of private businesses or thinktanks.<\/p>\n