Chinese intelligence announced on Monday that the director of a foreign consulting firm has been charged with spying for Britain’s Foreign Intelligence Service (MI6), AFP reported.

Beijing’s Ministry of Public Security said in a post on the WeChat social network that MI6 used a foreigner surnamed Huang to establish a “cooperative espionage relationship”.

The person who ran the consultancy “entered China on several occasions to use his public profile as a cover to gather information about China for Britain (…) and to find other people whom MI6 could contact” . the ministry said.

According to the same source, he allegedly passed 17 pieces of information, including classified state secrets, to MI6 before he was identified.

The ministry said the investigation “quickly uncovered evidence that Huang was involved in espionage” and said it had taken “coercive measures” against him.

In its release, the ministry did not provide additional details about Huang’s identity or his employer.

For several months, London and Beijing have accused each other of espionage.

The British government has warned that Chinese spies are increasingly targeting public officials, and a British parliamentary investigator recently denied that he was spying for Beijing.

Last year, China raided several major consulting and research companies.

In May, Beijing said it had raided the offices of US consulting firm Capvision to protect its “national security interests”. (Agerpres)