Chinese tech firm has database on 40,000 Brits including Boris Johnson, the Queen and other royals 'to be used by the country's spies'
by Jack Wright For Mailonline- Chinese tech company with links to Beijing's military has data on 40,000 Britons
- Information on Boris Johnson and most of his Cabinet is being stored by the firm
- Royals including Queen, Prince Philip and Prince Charles are also on database
- UK military officers and warships, diplomats and MPs included in surveillance op
- Data was leaked and shared by US academic being tracked by Chinese regime
Boris Johnson and the Queen are among 40,000 Britons listed on a database compiled by a Chinese tech firm with reported links to Beijing's military and intelligence networks, it can be disclosed.
Files on senior British politicians including the Prime Minister, members of the Royal Family, UK military officers and their families, and religious leaders are currently being stored by Zhenhua Data, a technology company based in Shenzhen, China as part of a 'global mass surveillance system on an unprecedented scale'.
It is understood the information was leaked to US academic Christopher Balding, who was previously based in Shenzhen but returned to America citing security concerns, and published by the professor online.
The database is thought to be used by Chinese intelligence agencies for monitoring British civilians in a shock worldwide espionage campaign also affecting millions of people in the US, Canada, India and Japan.
The names, dates of birth, educational and professional histories, criminal records and social media accounts of politicians, Royals, business people, academics, military officers, and civilians convicted of drug and terror offences are being harvested by Zhenhua for the reported benefit of the Chinese Communist Party.
It comes amid heightened tensions between the UK Government and Beijing, as London accuses China of covering-up the outbreak of coronavirus and lost the international community precious time in its response to the pandemic.
Britain and China are also at loggerheads over Beijing's draconian new security laws in Hong Kong imposed earlier this year.
WHO'S WHO ON CHINESE DATABASE
Politicians -
Boris Johnson
Keir Starmer
Tom Tugendhat
Bob Seely
Tony Blair
John Prescott
David Lidington
Anne Marie Trevelyan
Norman Lamb
Paul Scully
Richard Harrington
Rosena Allin-Khan
Tim Farron
Theresa May
Wes Streeting
Roy Jenkins
Dominic Grieve
James Cleverly
Andrew Bridgen
Julian Knight
Kate Forbes
Sir Winston Churchill
Esther McVey
Royals -
The Queen
Prince Philip
Prince Charles
Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall
Prince William
Prince Edward
Prince Andrew
Prince Michael
Princess Anne
Mark Phillips
Zara Tindall
Peter Phillips
The Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles, Prince William, Prince Harry, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Anne, Zara Tindall and the late Princess of Wales Diana are all listed on Zhenhua's comprehensive index - alongside their relations to each other.
Most of Boris Johnson's Cabinet including Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis are being tracked by the tech firm, as well as dozens of MPs including Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, Sir Ed Davey, Esther McVey, Norman Lamb, Kate Forbes and Gisela Stuart.
Tony Blair, his children, and the children of John Prescott, Amber Rudd, Dominic Grieve, Ed Vaizey, Menzies Campbell and Chris Philp are included, while the wives of Johnny Mercer and David Lidington are named.
Jennifer Mordaunt, the mother of former Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt and a relative of Labour's first Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowdon, is also listed by Zhenhua.
The Chinese tech firm is also storing information on high-ranking officers in the UK Armed Forces, including General Sir Nick Carter, the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Lord Dannatt, former Head of the British Army, former First Sea Lord Sir George Zambellas and General Sir Richard Barrons, a former Head of the UK's Joint Forces Command.
Information about UK and US warships, including tweets that name the location of the ships when docked in ports, is being kept by Zhenhua, as well as files about British diplomats and their families posted around the world - including Dominick Chilcott, the British Ambassador to Turkey.
Thousands of profiles of British business people working at some of the UK's biggest companies have been scraped together - such as Tesco, BP, Barclays, KPMG, GLAXOSMITHKLINE, British American Tobacco, British Gas, AstraZeneca and Unilever.
More than 200 people with professional connections to HSBC, which declared support for China's draconian new security laws in Hong Kong imposed by Beijing earlier this year, are also being monitored.
Roger Carr, the chairman of BAE Systems, Britain's biggest manufacturer and supplier of weapons, is listed in the database, while data on two employees of UK defence company Babcock International is also being kept.
Richard Desmond, the property tycoon and Tory donor, is listed in the files as a businessman.
More to follow.