Failure to name China ‘active threat’ was ‘fatal’ to spy case collapse says prosecutors

The Director of Public Prosecutions has told a Parliamentary Committee that the Government’s refusal to categorise China as an “active threat” to national security was “fatal” to the attempted prosecution of two alleged spies.

But the national security official whose evidence was crucial to the prosecution told the same committee that he stood by every word of his statement that China posed a “range of threats” and he was surprised by the decision to drop the case.