Security Minister Dan Jarvis said the safety of Hong Kongers in the UK is paramount (Image: parliamentlive.tv)
Fury erupted over Labour’s failure to hit Chinese spies with more restrictions after Beijing allegedly offered bounties for Hong Kong refugees.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said people were offered £100,000 to hand three Hong Kong dissidents “to the Chinese Embassy”.
He said: “Bounties have apparently been placed on three people who are in the United Kingdom, amounting to approximately £100,000 each. Tony Chung aged 23, Carmen Lau aged 30 and Chloe Cheung, aged only 17. All of them fled Hong Kong owing to persecution.
“Chloe Cheung apparently was advised by the police to dial 999 if she felt under threat, which strikes me as an inadequate response. I understand that posters appeared near the home addresses of two of these people and letters were posted to their neighbours offering a reward if they were quote ‘delivered to the Chinese Embassy’.
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Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has urged Angela Rayner to block Beijing’s embassy (Image: PA)
“This is completely unacceptable, cannot be tolerated, and robust action must be taken.”
He added: “Are investigations underway into the perpetrators of this, and why isn’t China being placed into the enhanced tier under the foreign influence registration scheme (Firs)? Surely, China should be placed into that tier as a matter of urgency.”
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith repeated calls for Deputy Prime Minister to block Beijing’s plans for a ‘super embassy’ in central London in response to the “extraterritorial attacks”.
Sir Iain warned “nothing ultimately happens” after people are targeted.
He told MPs: “For those who are here who have fled Hong Kong, what we are seeing is extraterritorial attacks on them in plain view and yet it seems that nothing ultimately happens.”
He held aloft a letter as he told the Commons: “And here, for example, is a copy of a letter that has been put about by an individual, redacted, an individual who has been threatened and the neighbours have been asked to take him to the Chinese embassy to hand them in and receive the bounty.
“How much longer are we going to say all these wonderful words in this House about what we stand for?”
Turning to plans for a new Chinese embassy in London, Sir Iain later added: “Everywhere that they have a super-embassy in the world you see extraterritorial activity grow massively. Will he now reject that and start arresting people responsible and kicking them out of the country?”
Security minister Dan Jarvis told MPs: “The safety and security of Hong Kongers in the UK is of the utmost importance, and the UK will always stand up for the rights of the people of Hong Kong.
“Let me also say to him that wherever we identify such threats we will use any and all measures, including through the use of our world class intelligence services, to mitigate the risk to individuals.”
Mr Jarvis added: “The activity that he describes is completely unacceptable. The Government is crystal clear that the kind of activity that he has just described is not acceptable and we will do everything that we are able to do in order to prevent it from happening.”
The minister said Deputy Prime Minister is yet to make a decision on plans for the embassy, in her capacity as Housing Secretary.