British security apprehended a Chinese spy last week who was attempting to gain access to Queen Elizabeth’s royal carriage under the guise of being an official interpreter.
The diplomatic protection squad, a group tasked with protecting the royal family, intercepted the security official, leading to a tense exchange when the Chinese realized that the game was up, The Sunday Times reports.
“The bodyguard, or spy, attempted to get in the carriage and was prevented when it was ascertained by our security officials that he was actually a security official rather than the official translator. In other words, they were trying to get someone dodgy into the carriage alongside the president and the queen,” a senior British official said, according to The Sunday Times.
While the exchange took place, the Queen rode in her carriage with Xi, completely unaware of what had just happened, as no one was in the carriage who was not supposed to be present.
A British politician said that the Chinese were trying to take control of the security situation and emphasized that the “security should be done by us [the United Kingdom], not them.”
“There was a stand-off and our protection people were shouldered aside. There’s an issue here about bullying, uncomprehending Chinese police,” the politician added.
It’s unclear whether this incident will setback attempts at increase national security cooperation between the two countries. As part of the visit, David Cameron unveiled a cybercrime non-aggression pact with Xi. Both countries are agreeing to “not to conduct or support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, trade secrets or confidential business information with the intent of providing competitive advantage.”
Whether the agreement has legal weight remains to be seen, and some security experts, like Tom Gaffney of F-Secure, think that there won’t be any change, whatsoever. According to Gaffney, Beijing has too many resources invested in cyber-attacks to give them up quickly.
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