UK prosecutor says a spying case collapsed because the government wouldn’t call China a threat

LONDON (AP) — The trial of two British men accused of spying for Beijing collapsed because the U.K. government refused to brand China a threat to national security, the country’s chief prosecutor said.

Former parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash and academic Christopher Berry were charged in April 2024 with violating the Official Secrets Act by providing information or documents that could be “useful to an enemy” and “prejudicial to the safety or interests” of the U.K. between late 2021 and February 2023.

But Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said the case collapsed because no one from the government was willing to testify “that at the time of the offense China represented a threat to national security.”

“When this became apparent, the case could not proceed,” he wr