Britain’s spy chiefs are to step up efforts to recruit Mandarin speakers in the face of the growing threat from China.
Just days ago, MI5 director general Ken McCallum told how the security service is “looking to do more” to counter the espionage threat from China.
Jeremy Fleming, director of the GCHQ spy listening centre in Cheltenham, has also recently spoken of the “very complicated picture” in dealing with China as an “intelligence adversary” yet also “an economic partner”.
Beijing has developed spying on an industrial scale and Britain does not seek to match the scale of China’s espionage army, which is focused on seeking to steal commercial secrets, including intellectual property, as well as other actions such as interfering in politics.
However, by strengthening their ranks of Mandarin speakers, the UK intelligence services would be responding to growing concerns over the rise of China.
They also seek to stay ahead of intelligence adversaries through technological innovations, more sophisticated “tradecraft” and close working with allies such as the Five Eyes group of the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, as well as European and other partners.
Recruitment for the agencies is now done openly online and one advert has been placed for Mandarin speakers to work in London and Cheltenham.
It states: “Coming soon: MI5, MI6 and GCHQ will shortly be launching a recruitment campaign for Mandarin linguists.
“Our Mandarin linguists use their language skills to provide intelligence insights and deliver clear analysis.
“They play an active role in directing projects and driving forward investigations, working at the heart of intelligence investigations.”
With China’s rise as a global power, the demand for Mandarin speakers in business and other organisations is growing.
Stringent security checks for new staff for the agencies are also carried out through vetting processes.
Earlier this month, Mr McCallum told how MI5 was having to combat increasingly severe state-sponsored espionage.
“In the 2020s, one of the toughest challenges facing MI5 and indeed Government is that the differing national security challenges presented by Russian, Chinese, Iranian and other actors are growing in severity and in complexity – while terrorist threats persist at scale,” he said.
He also explained how the agency is seeking to defend Covid-19 vaccine work by British universities and pharmaceutical giants against hostile powers in the race for “the global prize of having a first useable vaccine against this deadly virus”.
MI6’s new chief Richard Moore echoed Mr McCallum’s picture of the situation facing Britain, tweeting at the time: “Important and very balanced points on the threat landscape and how we’ve all adapted to keep the country safe during COVID.”
Mr Fleming told the Cheltenham Science Festival in June: “Of course, it is the case that China’s rise, if it wasn’t front and centre for everyone before this pandemic, it certainly is front and centre now.”
GCHQ is one of the biggest employers of linguists in the UK, with staff speaking 42 different languages including Arabic, Russian, Persian, Mandarin Chinese, Pashto, Punjabi, Hindi, Mirpuri, Urdu and West African languages.