{"id":74778,"date":"2025-10-16T20:18:45","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T11:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/oct\/16\/china-spy-row-what-do-the-witness-statements-say-and-what-is-their-significance"},"modified":"2025-10-16T20:18:45","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T11:18:45","slug":"china-spy-row-what-do-the-witness-statements-say-and-what-is-their-significance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=74778","title":{"rendered":"China spy row: what do the witness statements say and what is their significance?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Statements are at heart of row about who, if anyone, was to blame for collapse of case against two men accused of spying<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/politics\/live\/2025\/oct\/16\/china-spy-case-cps-keir-starmer-uk-politics-latest-news-updates\">UK politics live \u2013 latest updates<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On Wednesday night ministers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/witness-statements-in-relation-to-alleged-breach-of-official-secrets-act-on-behalf-of-china\">released<\/a> three witness statements by Matthew Collins, the UK\u2019s deputy national security adviser, in connection with the failed prosecution of two British men, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, who were accused of spying for China.<\/p>\n<p>The statements span 18 months and two different governments, and are at the heart of a row about who, if anyone, was to blame for the case collapsing. Both Cash and Berry have denied any wrongdoing. Below are some key passages and their potential significance.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/oct\/16\/china-spy-row-what-do-the-witness-statements-say-and-what-is-their-significance\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Statements are at heart of row about who, if anyone, was to blame for collapse of case against two men accused of spyingUK politics live \u2013 latest updatesOn Wednesday night ministers released three witness statements by Matthew Collins, the UK\u2019s deputy &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4836,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50,3411,667,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china","category-crown-prosecution-service","category-espionage","category-uk-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4836"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74778"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74791,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74778\/revisions\/74791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}