China spied on UK's top officials by hacking their phones for years — The Telegraph

An operation called Salt Typhoon allowed Beijing to gain access to the personal correspondence of high-ranking British officials.

State-sponsored hackers attacked the phones of some of Boris Johnson's closest aides, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

The Telegraph says it is unclear whether the hack included the Prime Ministers' own mobile phones, but one source familiar with the leak said the attack went right to the heart of Downing Street.

According to media reports, this espionage operation compromised high-ranking members of the government by exposing their private communications to the Chinese side.

The agency adds that the hacker attack on Downing Street was part of a large-scale operation by Beijing targeting many countries, including the United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

In October 2025, Western media reported that China had systematically accessed secret British government systems for more than 10 years, hacking low- and medium-level classified documents.

Recently, a high-profile scandal erupted in China's military leadership. It concerns the possible transfer of secret data on the nuclear program and large-scale corruption in the upper echelons of the army.