Draft:Christine Lee (lawyer)
 | Review waiting, please be patient.
This may take 2 months or more, since drafts are reviewed in no specific order. There are 1,283 pending submissions waiting for review.
Where to get help
How to improve a draft
You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Editor resources
Reviewer tools
|
Christine Lee | |
|---|---|
| Born | Christine Ching Kui Lee[1] 1963 (age 60–61)[2] |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
| Known for | Accusation of political interference |
| Children | 2 |
Christine Ching Kui Lee is a British lawyer. She has been accused of engaging in covert "political interference activities in the UK" on behalf of the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party.
Early life
[edit]Lee was born in Hong Kong.[3] She moved from her birthplace to Northern Ireland in 1974, when she was 11 years old, attending school in Belfast. Lee was bullied for being the only Chinese person in her class.[2][4] She used this experience as an influence to later encourage and assist British-Chinese people to get involved in politics, beginning with supporting a 19-year-old's campaign at the 2009 European parliamentary elections.[4]
Career
[edit]In 1990, Lee founded Christine Lee & Co. Solicitors, a law firm.[2] The firm is headquartered in Birmingham, with a satellite office in London's Chinatown.[5] It has since expanded into Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Beijing.[3] The firm predominantly worked on cases related to immigration, such as those seeking asylum or work visas, specific to China.[2][6] The firm's consultancy subsidiary, China UK Link, helped link Chinese entrepreneurs with investment opportunities, obtain visas for education, and helped subsidiaries of Chinese companies deal with legal issues in the United Kingdom.[3]
By the nature of the firm's work, Lee had been in contact with the Embassy of China in London, influencing her later appointment as the embassy's legal adviser in 2008. She also became a legal adviser to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office in Beijing (which was merged into the United Front Works Department in 2018). Lee served with various groups, each promoting contact between China and Chinese communities outside the mainland.[2]
Lee was influenced to begin lobbying in 2005, when the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act was proposed. She spoke with Lord Chan of Oxton, the only lord of Chinese descent in the UK at the time, who persuaded her to rally the Chinese communities of England, rather than just London. This resulted in an amending of the bill before its approval in 2006.[3]
In 2006, Lee founded the British Chinese Project (BCP), a non-profit organisation lobbying for the improvement of British-Chinese community relations.[3][4] The group held events and organised trips to China, where several attendees of those events would later become candidates for various political positions.[2] The BCP would later act as the secretariat of the Chinese in Britain all-party parliamentary group (APPG),[2] which was created in 2011 and chaired by British politician Barry Gardiner.[7] Lee was described as "instrumental" in forming the APPG.[2] Lee and Gardiner co-authored a report on the Chinese community and policing, commissioned by the group.[7] The APPG has since been disbanded.[2]
In 2010, Lee was part of then Prime Minister David Cameron's delegation to China, serving as it's only Chinese member.[3]
As of January 2022, Companies House has recorded that Lee either holds or has held 16 total directorships.[4]
Political donations
[edit]In 2017 The Times revealed, from September 2015 to February 2017, British politician Barry Gardiner had received £182,284 in disclosed cash donations from Christine Lee & Co. Before this, his constituency party received cash donations from the firm of £22,500 between 2009 and 2015. The paper also revealed part of this money was used to fund the employment of Daniel Wilkes, son of the firm's founder Christine Lee, in his parliamentary offices. Gardiner said the son was hired via an open recruitment process and was appointed on merit. Sir Alistair Graham, former chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, called the situation "bizarre" and said "there are clearly questions to be answered".[6] After The Times 2017 piece, Gardiner received a further £200,000 from Lee,[7] having received a total of £425,000.[8] The Times said Gardiner generally took a pro-Beijing position in his shadow portfolio dealings, but the donations were disclosed and there was no suggestion of impropriety on Gardiner's part.[9] Gardiner wrote a letter saying the amounts he received were used to fund researchers and Lee had no influence in the appointment or management of these individuals.[10] Gardiner's constituency office employed Daniel Wilkes until a MI5 interference alert concerning Lee was deployed.[10][1]
Lee donated more than £650,000 to various politicians as of January 2022, most of which was thought to go to Gardiner or the Labour Party.[9] The total includes a £5,000 donation to Sir Ed Davey in 2013, when he held the position of Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.[8] The donation was accepted by Davey's local association.[2]
Allegations of political interference
[edit]In January 2022, the MI5 issued an interference alert declaring Lee to be an agent working for the United Front Work Department of the Chinese Communist Party, who was covertly "involved in political interference activities in the UK".[10][1] A lawyer for Lee has claimed that this alert was the first issued in "at least 80 years".[11] According to The Times, Lee's case was assessed and did not meet the threshold for prosecution under the Official Secrets Act, which was in place at the time.[9]
In July 2023, Lee sued the MI5 seeking unspecified damages for alleged breaches of her human rights. The lawsuit was filed to attempt to clear her name and force the disclosure of why the agency warned lawmakers about her.[11] In an Investigatory Powers Tribunal hearing, Lee's lawyer read a message sent from Gardiner, who wrote that "many people" believed the alert was timed to divert attention from Partygate, a political scandal in the United Kingdom about gatherings of government (notably Boris Johnson) and Conservative Party staff during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.[12]
Personal life
[edit]Lee is a naturalised British citizen. She is married and has two sons, Daniel and Michael Wilkes. Daniel studied politics and international relations at Exeter University, and Michael acted as the vice-chairman of the British Chinese Project.[7][5]
Lee was involved in a public dispute with British musician and YouTuber, Brendan Kavanagh, regarding being filmed in public during a live stream hosted by Kavanagh.[13]
Recognition
[edit]Lee's contributions to UK-China relations were highly regarded by both the Chinese and UK governments, leading to meetings with Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, and David Cameron.[7]
In 2019, Lee received the Points of Light award from then Prime Minister Theresa May, in recognition of her founding and work with the British Chinese Project.[4][10] May would also write her a personal letter commending her for her work.[10] The award would later be rescinded in the wake of the MI5 alert.[8]
Also in 2019, she was invited to participate in the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Chinese agent infiltrating Parliament, MI5 warns". BBC News. 13 January 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corera, Gordon (18 July 2022). "Why did MI5 name Christine Lee as an 'agent of influence'?". BBC.
- ^ a b c d e f g Liu, Cecily (30 April 2013). "Chinese champion fights". China Daily.
- ^ a b c d e f Quinn, Ben (13 January 2022). "Profile: Christine Lee, the woman at centre of MI5 security warning". The Guardian.
- ^ a b Mendick, Robert; Fisher, Lucy; Evans, Martin; Francis, Wayne (13 January 2022). "Christine Lee: Lawyer, mother-of-two, pillar of Anglo-Chinese community ... and spy". The Telegraph.
- ^ a b Wright, Oliver; McGrath, Hannah (4 February 2017). "China cash link to Labour MP". The Times. Archived from the original on 4 February 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d e Wright, Oliver (2022-01-13). "Who is Christine Lee? The Chinese 'agent' who rubbed shoulders with David Cameron and Xi Jinping". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
- ^ a b c Fisher, Lucy; Mendick, Robert (2022-01-13). "Labour MP Barry Gardiner accepted £425,000 in donations from Chinese spy". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
- ^ a b c Hamilton, Fiona; Wright, Oliver; Grylls, George (2022-01-13). "MI5 names Chinese 'agent' with links to Labour MP Barry Gardiner". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
- ^ a b c d e Davies, Gareth (2022-01-13). "MI5 warns Chinese 'spy' has been active in Parliament". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
- ^ a b Tobin, Sam (11 July 2023). "Woman sues Britain's MI5 for calling her a Chinese agent". Reuters.
- ^ Holden, Michael (17 June 2024). "UK's MI5 issued Chinese spy alert to distract from PM scandal, court hears". Reuters.
- ^ Terrats, Matthieu (27 January 2024). "Il se filme au piano en plein milieu de la gare, une femme lui demande d'arrêter : l'une des "touristes" chinoises est "un agent d'influence" pour le Parti Communiste, le MI5 donne l'alerte" (in French). L'Indépendant.