UK government says it was not to blame for collapse of China spy trial

LONDON (Reuters) -The British government said on Monday it was not to blame for the collapse of a trial of two men accused of spying for China, saying it was a decision made by prosecutors who relied on language used by the previous government in its China policy.

In an unexpected move, British prosecutors last month dropped charges of spying for China against two men just weeks before they were due to go on trial.

The men, Christopher Cash, 30, a former director of the China Research Group think tank, and Christopher Berry, 33, were first arrested in March 2023, and in April the following year were charged with passing politically sensitive information to a Chinese intelligence agent. They denied all the accusations against them.

The charges were made under the Official Secrets Act which specifies it is a crime to communicate any documents which might be useful to "an enemy".

In the last week, British newspapers have reported that the government's refusal to describe China as an enemy for the purposes of the court case - because of a desire to maintain good links with Beijing - had undermined the case against them.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer's spokesperson said on Monday that the previous government's policy was to call China an "epoch-defining challenge" but stopped short of calling the country an enemy.

The "evidence in relation to this case is based on the previous government's policy that obviously was relevant at the time" the spokesperson told reporters.

The Conservatives, who were in government until 2024, and other opposition political parties have accused Starmer's Labour government of deliberately collapsing the trial to avoid upsetting China.

Legal experts said there were other issues which could have influenced the decision to drop the charges, including not wanting to reveal intelligence about how British spies operate.

The prime minister's press secretary said the National Security Act passed in 2023 would in future allow prosecutors to put spying suspects on trial in a wider set of circumstances.

(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Michael Holden; Editing by Ros Russell)