The researcher is understood to have had links to several senior Tory MPs, including the security minister, Tom Tugendhat, and the foreign affairs committee chair, Alicia Kearns.
He insisted that the UK would seek a “pragmatic” relationship with China to tackle major global issues such as the climate crisis.
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, one of the party’s most prominent China hawks, warned of a “deepening threat” being posed by the country under president Xi Jinping.
A report from parliament’s spy agency watchdog, the intelligence and security committee, warned in July that Beijing was targeting the UK “prolifically and aggressively”.
Last year, MI5 issued a rare security alert, warning MPs that a suspected Chinese spy called Christine Lee had engaged in “political interference activities” on behalf of China’s communist regime.
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said on Saturday: “This is an immensely serious report and shows why the UK needs a much more comprehensive response to national security threats and challenges from China and other countries.
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