Britain says China hacked electoral watchdog, targeted lawmaker emails

LONDON: Britain on Monday accused Chinese hackers of trying to break into email accounts of British lawmakers who were critical of China and said a separate Chinese entity was behind a hack of its electoral watchdog that compromised millions of people’s data.

In response to the attempted hack in 2021 of emails belonging to British politicians who are critical of China, Britain imposed sanctions on two people and one company linked to state-backed Chinese hacking group APT31.

Britain also said an unidentified Chinese state-affiliated hacking group was behind a separate 2021-2022 cyber-attack on Britain’s Electoral Commission. That hack was disclosed last year but Britain had not previously said who was responsible.

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told parliament the attacks “demonstrate a clear and persistent pattern of behaviour that signals hostile intent from China”, adding the foreign office had summoned the Chinese ambassador to explain.

The Chinese embassy in London said the claims were?”completely fabricated” and “malicious slanders”.

The British government is attempting to strike a delicate balance between trying to neutralise security threats posed by China while maintaining or even enhancing engagement in some areas such as trade, investment and climate change.

But there has been growing anxiety about China’s alleged espionage activity in Britain, particularly ahead of a general election expected later this year.