Explainer: Why UK authorities arrested 3 men linked to Hong Kong’s trade office
Hong Kong Free Press
The arrests of three men connected to a Hong Kong government trade office in London marked the first time Hongkongers have been prosecuted under the UK’s new national security legislation. Designed to combat espionage, sabotage, terrorism, and foreign interference, the UK security law was introduced amid rocky relations with China.
HKFP looks at the accusations made against a trade office manager, a London police officer, and a security contractor; how the move has placed Hong Kong’s London-based trade office in the spotlight; and how Hong Kong’s political sphere has reacted to the allegations.
Who are the three arrestees?
Three men have been charged with violating the UK’s 2023 National Security Act by assisting a foreign intelligence service and engaging in foreign interference on behalf of Hong Kong.
Bill Yuen, Peter Wai, and Matthew Trickett, were arrested in early May after allegedly attempting to break into the home of a British National (Overseas) passport holder who left Hong Kong last December — an act that amounted to prohibited conduct under the foreign interference offence.
They are also accused of participating in “information gathering, surveillance and acts of deception, that [were] likely to materially assist a foreign intelligence service carrying out UK-related activities” between December 20, 2023 and May 2, 2024.
The trio appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on Monday and were granted bail pending the next hearing on May 24, British media reported.
Yuen, 63, is an officer manager at the London Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKETO), according to the government’s directory, as well as a retired Hong Kong police officer. He is accused of tasking Wai and Trickett with conducting surveillance operations and the home break-in.
The other two defendants in the case are understood to be British law enforcement officers.
Wai, 38, is a UK Border Force Officer based at Heathrow Airport in London, and a Special (part-time volunteer) Constable with the City of London police. He is also understood to be the director of a private security firm registered in the UK called D5 Security Consultancy Limited.
Wai has “over 20 years’ experience in the British military, police and private security sector,” according to its website. It also says “the majority of [its] staff have extensive backgrounds in the British Military and Police.”
Wai also held directorate positions at six other companies, according to the Webb-site database run by activist investor David Webb.
Matthew Trickett, 37, is an immigration enforcement officer and also a director of another security firm called MTR Consultancy that focuses on security, surveillance and private investigations.
Trickett served as a British Royal Marine between February 2007 and March 2013. He received a penalty notice for disorderly behaviour in 2005.
Hong Kong activists
The prosecution has alleged that Yuen acted on the behalf of the London HKETO in hiring Wai’s security firm for surveillance services.
Following his arrest, Yuen told police officers that part of his job at the London HKETO was to manage security in addition to administrative duties, citing an increase in protests outside the trade office since 2019. He denied having committed any offences.
Text messages between Yuen and Wai suggested that ongoing surveillance has been conducted against “fugitive” pro-democracy activist Nathan Law since 2021. The prosecution also said that the three men also targeted veteran unionist Christopher Mung and activist Finn Lau, whose names were found listed on a note on Trickett’s phone.
The prosecution has also suggested that transaction records linked the London HKETO to the two security firms for the surveillance jobs. Bank records show that Wai’s security firm D5 Security received three payments from the London HKETO’s HSBC bank account totalling £95,500 between June 5, 2023 and January 31, 2024.
The payments to Wai’s company then also went out to other parties, including Trickett’s firm.
The three activists targeted by the arrestees are among ten others who are also wanted by Hong Kong’s national security police and each have a HK$1 million bounty over their heads for information leading to their arrests.
The first batch of eight arrest warrants were announced last July, marking the first time such warrants – and such large bounties – had been issued.
Chief Executive John Lee said at the time: “The government will exhaust all lawful means to apprehend criminals endangering national security… [we] will pursue them for the rest of our lives even if they run to the ends of the earth.”
The warrants were met with condemnation from Western governments and the United Nations, with UN experts quickly expressing “serious concern.”
In the months that followed, the homes of several Hong Kong-based family members of the overseas activists were raided and relatives questioned by national security police, including Law’s sister-in-law and the parents of Anna Kwok.
Warrants for the arrests of another five activists were announced in December, including US-based activist Frances Hui, whose mother was questioned by police this January.
‘Hostile surveillance’
The alleged surveillance jobs against the three wanted activists were conducted last August, before the UK’s security act came into effect last December, meaning they cannot be charged for those activities.
But the evidence would still demonstrate the relationship between the three men, the activity they were engaged in, and who their actions were intended to benefit, the prosecution said.
The defendants were instead arrested in late April and early May this year for conducting hostile surveillance and forcing entry into a UK residence of a British National (Overseas) passport holder.
The residence belonged to a Monica Kwong. According to the Hong Kong judiciary website, civil proceedings have been issued against the 41-year-old, who stood accused of defrauding the company she worked at out of more than HK$144 million.
Wai and Trickett, along with private investigators and personnel from the company, YearShine Investment Limited, conducted a surveillance operation at her UK home in late January, and attempted to enter the residence in late April this year.
One of the investigators is a former Hong Kong policeman named Cheuk Wing whom Yuen identified as a friend and a former colleague in the police force. Yuen said Cheuk contacted him for assistance with Kwong’s case, but the trade officer has denied involvement in the job other than being a middleman between Cheuk and Wai.
Financial records obtained by prosecutors show that Wai received a payment of £16,170 from the London HKETO after the January operation, and transferred £1,170 to Trickett on the same day. In April, Cheuk transferred £5,500 to Wai prior to the surveillance job at Kwong’s residence.
Body-cam footage of the April operation obtained by the prosecution shows Trickett posing as a maintenance worker and pouring water under Kwong’s door to orchestrate a fake “water leak” to try to enter the residence. He is also shown operating a snake camera to look under the door.
In a police interview after his arrest, Trickett admitted to taking the surveillance job, adding that Wai had told him the job was legal and legitimate.
What are the HKETOs? Are they embassies?
Hong Kong has 14 overseas trade offices, set up to develop trade relations with foreign governments.
Though the HKETOs are neither embassies nor consulates with diplomatic functions, they are afforded quasi-diplomatic privileges, exemptions, and immunities similar to other international bodies such as the World Health Organization.
The London office is registered as an “overseas entity” incorporated in Hong Kong.
While Hong Kong does not designate HKETOs as intelligence agencies, the 2023 UK law defines a “foreign intelligence service” as “any person whose functions include carrying out intelligence activities for or on behalf of a foreign power.”
But the arrest of the HKETO staffer has since made international headlines and shone a spotlight on the city’s overseas trade offices, sparking renewed calls in the UK for the London office to be shut down.
The prosecution has alleged that Yuen was acting on behalf of the London HKETO in tasking Wai with security jobs, citing transaction records from the office’s HSBC account to Wai’s security firm.
Following the arrests, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee said the HKETOs were legitimate government bodies promoting the city’s economic and trade interests in different countries.
Overseas activists in the US have also called for the three HKETOs in the US to be shut down.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee last November passed a bill that would close the Hong Kong trade offices in Washington DC, New York, and San Francisco on the grounds that the city no longer enjoys a high degree of autonomy from China.
Amid support from activist groups, the bill passed the committee with a unanimous vote of 39 — a move that the Hong Kong government has slammed as “malicious slander.”
In 2021, HKFP revealed that the Washington HKETO was involved in a failed, multi-million dollar lobbying effort by the Hong Kong government to discuss topics including the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act with US politicians.
Lobbyists were paid by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, a statutory body, but instructed by the HKETO in Washington.
Apart from the three US offices, Hong Kong has ETOs in Bangkok, Berlin, Brussels, Dubai, Geneva, Jakarta, London, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and Toronto. Finance chief Paul Chan announced this February that Hong Kong was considering establishing an ETO in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to further the city’s interests in the Middle East.
‘Vague law, unwarranted accusations’
Hong Kong leader John Lee on Tuesday dismissed “unwarranted accusations” that the city funded the surveillance of overseas activists and urged Britain to “fairly handle” the case. He also assured the public that the trade office’s operations would not be affected.
He quoted an earlier statement issued by the Chinese embassy in the UK, which said: “The Chinese side firmly rejects and strongly condemns the UK’s fabrication of the so-called case and its unwarranted accusation against the [Hong Kong] government.”
The chief executive, who is a former police officer and served as the city’s security chief from 2017 to 2021, also denied having a personal relationship with Yuen, whom he is pictured next to in a photo of a police management course graduation at an Australian university in 2002.
Executive Councillor and Senior Counsel Ronny Tong said the UK move amounted to an “abuse” of political power under legislation that he described as “broad and vague,” compared to Hong Kong’s newly-passed domestic security law.
“The UK National Security Act has only just come into effect, and already there is a trend of abuse of political power, which is really worrying, especially for those who are concerned about human rights,” he said.
Executive Council convener and former security minister Regina Ip also called the UK legislation “strict,” with broad and vague definitions. “Our government needs to get the facts straight. We don’t have much information now, including how [the defendants] assisted a foreign intelligence service and how they collected information,” she said.
“And of course, we know that there are some Hongkongers in exile that have been surveilled, which is quite shocking,” she said, adding that she thought the Hong Kong authorities should get in touch with the UK to ascertain whether it had grounds to target the two Hong Kong men.
Following the arrests, Security Minister Tom Tugendhat said the UK’s new national security legislation was a “game-changer” for the country’s ability to “crack down on foreign intelligence services and hostile actors.”
“Our commitment to defending the rights and freedoms we hold dear is absolute. We will do whatever it takes to protect our national security,” he said.
The next hearing in London will take place next Friday, May 24.
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