Author of Home Office report on China reveals attempts to compromise him

Exclusive: Dr David Wilson says former British police officer approached him as part of efforts to influence his work

The author of a Home Office-sponsored report on the Chinese state and organised crime in the UK was the target of failed honey traps and a suspected attempt to compromise him by a former British police officer, it is claimed.

Dr David Wilson, whose groundbreaking analysis was declassified in February, has told of multiple attempts to influence him or discredit his work as he sought to examine the policing challenges posed by the Chinese Communist party (CCP) and criminal gangs.

Among the apparent attempts to interfere with Wilson’s findings – based on interviews with officials from 14 law enforcement agencies in the UK – was an approach to him by a former British police officer who had been a Chinese citizen before being naturalised in the UK, he said.

Wilson said he had been warned during early interviews with former officers in the Hong Kong police force that he would make himself a target for “honey traps or bribes” from the Chinese state and organised crime.

“Within about two weeks of getting this warning, I receive this phone call,” Wilson said. “It was someone who I loosely knew. It was an ex-Chinese citizen who was a naturalised British citizen.

“He had been part of a British law enforcement institution. He said: ‘Listen, why don’t you meet me at this specific Chinese restaurant?’ Straight away, as soon as he said that, I knew the restaurant, I knew who owned it, and I knew where this was going, because I’d been warned about it, and it was literally word for word.”

According to Wilson, the caller said he had “some people who can help you” but declined to offer any further information on their identities. “‘It doesn’t matter, there’s a few people, why don’t you come along and just see what they’ve got to say?’ I said: ‘Thanks very much, really kind of you, but actually, no.’”