The long arm of Xi Jinping as China projects "soft power"

Like most countries, China is dedicated to projecting soft power and building links with institutions abroad. Unlike most other countries, that is rattling Western governments.

Xi Jinping
Xi: dedicated to telling China’s story well
(Image credit: © Feng Li/Getty Images)

Who is Christine Lee?

She’s an apparently very respectable Chinese solicitor in London who has moved in Westminster circles for years, working as an advocate for Sino-British nationals in British politics, rubbing shoulders with former prime ministers and winning a gong from Theresa May. All the while – according to MI5 – Lee was working for the Chinese state for the purposes of “covert political interference” in the UK’s affairs.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

Simon Wilson’s first career was in book publishing, as an economics editor at Routledge, and as a publisher of non-fiction at Random House, specialising in popular business and management books. While there, he published Customers.com, a bestselling classic of the early days of e-commerce, and The Money or Your Life: Reuniting Work and Joy, an inspirational book that helped inspire its publisher towards a post-corporate, portfolio life.   

Since 2001, he has been a writer for MoneyWeek, a financial copywriter, and a long-time contributing editor at The Week. Simon also works as an actor and corporate trainer; current and past clients include investment banks, the Bank of England, the UK government, several Magic Circle law firms and all of the Big Four accountancy firms. He has a degree in languages (German and Spanish) and social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge.