20,000 Britons approached by Chinese agents on LinkedIn, says MI5 head

Ken McCallum warns China is trying to steal industrial and technological secrets in the west

An estimated 20,000 Britons have been approached by Chinese state actors on LinkedIn in the hope of stealing industrial or technological secrets, the head of MI5 has said.

Ken McCallum said industrial espionage was happening at “real scale”, and he estimated that 10,000 UK businesses were at risk, particularly in artificial intelligence, quantum computing or synthetic biology where China was trying to gain a march.