For three years, China gained access to confidential information concerning Britain’s nuclear weapons by delivering wi-fi to the UK’s military headquarters and 45 other defense locations.
Experts are concerned that the security blunder, revealed by The Mail on Sunday, has allowed China to gain a “complete grasp of British military activities” and access personal information that might be used to blackmail troops into disclosing state secrets.
Chinese Internet Provider Media Force
Media Force, a telecommunications company, has been providing internet to the Armed Forces for nearly two decades and currently delivers wi-fi to 46 British military stations throughout the army, navy, and air force.
This includes the United Kingdom’s primary military headquarters at Northwood, which handles the country’s nuclear deterrence program and is also utilized by Nato.
However, between September 2017 and November 2020, the firm was controlled by PCCW, a Hong Kong-based computer firm partially owned by the Chinese government.
China Unicom, a Chinese state-owned telecoms provider, is PCCW’s second-largest stakeholder, with an 18% stake. Chinese businesses are required by law to support, help, and cooperate’ with official intelligence operations.
When the Chinese government IT firm operated the internet networks at British military bases, PCCW executives occupied prominent positions. Lu Yimin, PCCW’s deputy chairman, was president of China Unicom in 2017, and two non-executive directors also held significant positions at China Unicom.
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China Accesses UK’s Military Operations
Non-executive directors at PCCW held senior positions at China Unicom until November 2020, when PCCW sold Media Force to the British firm Wifinity.
Former security officer Philip Ingram called the blunder an “intelligence gold mine,” adding, ‘It is astonishing that the Ministry of Defence allowed this to happen.
The Chinese government will have developed a thorough grasp of British military operations and may have had access to sensitive information regarding our nuclear deterrence installations.
“They could also have gained information about a substantial part of the military’s work and private mobile phones, making them exposed to overtures from enemy intelligence services, like the Chinese.”
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who is also co-chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said: “This is yet another shameful example by the Government of a complete and total failure to take security seriously.”
A spokesman for Wifinity said: “Media Force is wholly owned by Wifinity, an independent UK-based company. There is no direct or indirect ownership by any companies associated with the Chinese state.”
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