‘I’m not dumb’: Hong Kong’s London trade office manager denies running spy network

A national security trial in Britain that thrust the role of Hong Kong’s overseas trade promotion offices into the global spotlight has heard the defendant deny he was spying on prominent activists from the city and UK politicians on behalf of China.

Two years after his arrest, Bill Yuen Chung-biu took to the witness box last week and challenged the prosecution’s claim that he ran a “shadow” policing operation in the country, serving as a conduit for information about the activists while working as a manager of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO) in London.

Yuen, a retired Hong Kong police superintendent, is accused of passing on surveillance requests from city authorities to co-defendant Peter Wai Chi-leung, who allegedly used his position as a United Kingdom Border Force officer to gather personal details about the activists using the Home Office computer systems.

Among the alleged targets was Nathan Law Kwun-chung, one of 13 overseas activists with HK$1 million (US$127,700) bounties placed on their heads by Hong Kong police.

“If I really did something illegal for my authorities, you would not be able to pick up such suspicious things here. I would not be dumb as that,” Yuen told jurors at the Central Criminal Court, referring to his alleged text messages with Wai concerning the activists.

Yuen and Wai were arrested in 2024 as part of a police investigation into a resident’s claims that debt collectors were harassing her. Two other former Hong Kong police officers were among the 11 detained.

The two defendants, both dual Chinese-British nationals, have denied charges of assisting a foreign intelligence service and foreign interference under the National Security Act.