Thread by @METhorley

1/20 The news about "Chinese agent" Christine Lee broke today. I've been following her case for some time & in fact she featured in my PhD thesis on UK-China hidden relations. She's appeared in stories by @thetimes & @GuidoFawkes before. Yet there's still a lot more to this case.

https://twitter.com/MrHarryCole/status/1481630342733832197

2/20 Frankly, if you have experience of the Chinese party-state, it would be hard to miss her enmeshment with it. The contrast between her presence in the UK and China is eye-opening, however, and raises some questions for a few well-placed British citizens and institutions.

3/20 Christine Lee and Co. Solicitors has worked closely with the Chinese embassy. Lee first donated to Barry Gardiner directly in 2015 but had been making donations to the Labour Party in his constituency (Brent North) since 2009. Not all donations, however, were to Labour...

4/20 First Gardiner though: his role in the Labour Party as a supporter of Hinkley Nuclear (with Chinese involvement) was important in shaping the Labour Party’s response to the project as official opposition party in Parliament at the time. He would become more critical later...

5/20 Gardiner “strongly opposed internal party criticism of Chinese involvement in the Hinkley Point project” according to a report in @thetimes years back.
But what of the other donations?

6/20 There is a single donation to the Liberal Democrats, made to the Kingston Borough office: Ed Davey’s constituency. The donation was registered on the 7th February 2013 during the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition and crucially, when Davey was the Energy Minister.

7/20 Davey would play a central role in securing Hinkley, not least by almost singlehandedly convincing the Liberal Democrats to back nuclear energy. It's a small donation but a fascinating link to consider in today's context...

8/20 Lee also played a crucial role setting up the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) "Chinese in Britain". Her website is now down, predictably, but here is a screenshot I took during thesis research, and an image of records showing funding

9/20 Bearing in mind her clear links to Chinese party-state influence organs, below are some of the objectives of her British Chinese Project organisation from its website:
• Set up the Chinese Council of Britain with the British Chinese Project as its secretary
...

10/20
• Support next-generation ethnic Chinese political leaders
• Establish formal channels for the British Chinese community to communicate their concerns with UK institutions
This is particularly regrettable as British-Chinese involvement in politics is an important cause.

11/20 But that worthy cause is obviously cheapened when commandeered by the party-state for its own ends.

Now let's look at Lee in China, where things get really interesting...

12/20 Naturally, Lee is connected to multiple united front groups and is an overseas member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress (CPPCC). @Anne_MarieBrady offers a great primer on these organisations if needed: jamestown.org/program/on-the…

13/20 Careful Chinese language investigations lead you to records of her meetings with various United Front and CPPCC affiliated individuals, but first, here is an image of her shaking hands with Xi jinping himself.

14/20 Far more interesting, in my opinion, is her selection as an honorary advisor to attend the Shenzhen Overseas Exchange Association Conference led by Director of the Shenzhen United Front Department, Lin Jie. Here is an image of Lee (centre left) meeting Lin (centre right)...

15/20 It's not a coincidence that Lee (from a legal field) is meeting Lin. Lin has worked to strengthen the Communist Party in this arena. For those who read Chinese, here she is discussing strengthening the Party's leadership over lawyers: archive.ph/cQk4u

16/20 In China, Lee attended a speech by Head of the United Front Dept, You Quan. He told audience to “accept the guidance of Xi Jinping’s new era of Socialism with Chinese characteristics. To unite as one & mutually strive to realise the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”

17/20 Lee responded to this by saying she was “encouraged and touched” by the speech, and that it “evoked strong feelings of national pride and the country’s civilizational progress” causing her to “realise that China had stood up”. She went on:

18/20 (my translation) "Although I have spent these years in Great Britain, no matter how long the shadow of the tree, the roots forever penetrate the soil… I must be a communicator of China’s voice, let the world understand China, help the motherland develop..."

19/20 "...safeguard the motherland’s unity, pledge to put my feelings for the motherland into action and do my humble part in realising the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation."

20/20 So this is a significant development today in the UK, but only in the way it has become publicly prominent. If you've been following China and the CCP (or read my PhD thesis😉), this won't be a big surprise. And in truth, today's story is just the tip of the iceberg. Fin.

Might be of interest: @niubi @GeorgeGreenwood @AMFChina @ChinaResearchGp @ipacglobal @BeijingToBrit @BeijingPalmer @UniofExeterNews @merics_eu @MareikeOhlberg @CliveCHamilton @thorstenbenner @geoff_p_wade @BethanyAllenEbr @DavidBarboza2 @DSORennie and plenty more I've missed😬