Britain’s MI5 is being sued for calling Christine Lee a Chinese agent

A woman branded a Chinese agent by Britain’s domestic intelligence service MI5 is suing the agency in a bid to clear her name, with her lawyers on Tuesday trying to compel MI5 to disclose why it warned lawmakers about her.

MI5 sent out an alert about Christine Lee in January 2022, alleging she was “involved in political interference activities” in the United Kingdom on behalf of China’s ruling Communist Party.

House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, who circulated MI5’s alert to lawmakers, said MI5 had found that Lee “has facilitated financial donations to serving and aspiring parliamentarians on behalf of foreign nationals based in Hong Kong and China”.

Lee denies the allegations and is now taking legal action against MI5 at a London tribunal, seeking unspecified damages for alleged breaches of her human rights.

Her lawyer Tony Muman told the Investigatory Powers Tribunal on Tuesday that the so-called interference alert issued by MI5 was the first such alert issued in “at least 80 years”.

He said Lee was unaware any such alert had been issued until she saw media reporting of her having been “branded an enemy of the state”.

“There has been a serious and public attack on [Lee’s] reputation without any prior finding of guilt,” he said in court filings. “Her claim is that she is a victim of the state’s actions and she seeks to protect her fundamental rights.”