The Home Office has accused a wealthy Chinese couple of making political donations on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and banned them from re-entering the UK, it has emerged.
Former Home Secretary Priti Patel informed the couple of the decision in March 2022, according to a legal document published recently by an immigration appeals tribunal.
The couple, whose identities are protected under an anonymity order, also had dealings with Christine Lee & Co Solicitors—the law firm founded by Christine Ching Kui Lee, who MI5 named as a CCP agent—the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) ruling (pdf) said.
The couple, a 60-year-old woman identified as C17 and her 62-year-old husband C18, were both from Guangdong, a southern Chinese province that borders Hong Kong. The family lives in Hong Kong and they had been in and out of the UK before the COVID-19 pandemic, the document shows….