National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell is in the firing line for his reported involvement in destroying the government’s case agaisnt two alleged Chinese spies. The Sunday Times reported that Powell declared in a meeting that China would not be described as an ‘enemy,’ something on which the case relied…
Guido can reveal that Jonathan Powell has in the recent past held a series of private meetings with figures close to and part of the Chinese Communist Party. Powell’s recent links with Chinese state officials are through the UK-based charity Inter Mediate, which he founded in 2011. Labour has refused to disclose how much this ‘peace organisation’ operating globally has so far received from British taxpayers to fund its activity…
On 22 March last year Powell met with Shen Xin, Secretary General of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (CPAFFC), an arm of the CCP’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The meeting was held in a private capacity. A public readout says the pair met, along with former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, “to discuss the current opportunities and challenges in China-U.S. relations, and how to improve the relationship between the two sides through civil exchange.“ Two days before that Powell met with the former Deputy Commander of the Chinese Air Force. This was a series of meetings organised by Inter Mediate, then led by Powell prior to his ascension to the government’s top national security post…
The CPAFFC is referred to as a front organisation by many China watchers, part of the Chinese ‘united front’ system, whose goal is to promote the CCP’s interests abroad. So important is it to Chinese interests that seven months after Shen Xin, its head, met with Powell, Chinese president Xi Jinping himself celebrated the 70th anniversary of the organisation at a glitzy event…
Incidentally, at the separate October event to celebrate CPAFFC was Cai Qi, Secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party and alleged handler of the two British citizens accused of spying for China. Cai Qi was pictured in conversation with the front organisation’s Shen Xin. Just months before Shen Xin was holding detailed meetings with Jonathan Powell…
Powell has so far refused to appear before MPs to discuss his role as NSA. Since he took the NSA job and officially left Inter Mediate the organisation has continued to meet directly with officials from the Chinese foreign ministry. In April this year it led a series of meetings with officials from the International Department of the Communist Party of China. What bearing, if any, did any of this have on the decision to drop the prosecution?
