CHINA claims it has arrested an MI6 spy.

Beijing says the suspect – who is neither British nor Chinese – had been stealing state secrets for the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service since at least 2015.

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The alleged spook was the boss of a foreign consulting firm who entered China several times with orders to scope out more spies, China claimed.

Beijing’s feared Ministry of State Security revealed the suspect’s surname was Huang, but did not give further details.

They claimed Huang had been trained in spy-craft in Britain and issued with “specialist spying equipment”.

In a statement published on WeChat they accused the UK of recruiting Huang in 2015 and forming an “intelligence cooperation relationship”.

The ministry said Huang, “entered China several times under instructions to use their public profile as a cover to collect China-related intelligence for Britain… and seek other personnel whom MI6 could turn.”

Huang allegedly passed 17 pieces of intelligence, including confidential state secrets, to MI6 before he was identified.

The ministry claimed it had “promptly discovered criminal evidence that Huang was engaged in espionage activities, and took criminal coercive measures in accordance with the law”.

It comes after MI6 revealed China was now their top priority.

Spy-chief Richard Moore said: “We now devote more resources to China than anywhere else, reflecting China’s increasing global significance.”

The UK also banned China’s Huawei from its 5G mobile networks over fear of Beijing’s spying, while the government has warned Beijing could use electric cars for espionage activities.

But the UK’s intelligence watchdog warned Britain’s response to Chinese spying was “completely inadequate”.

A report by parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee warned Beijing had penetrated “every sector” in the UK.

Britain’s embassy in Beijing declined to comment.

In December, The Sun told of how China is using an elite army of spies to hunt down and recruit Brits from UK universities to steal secrets.

Using a three-pronged approach, Chinese spies “befriend” students studying degrees such as engineering or IT and offer them glitzy trips to China – before convincing them to spill UK secrets, an intelligence expert said.

And as tensions continue to flare between the UK and China over spying allegations, it was revealed that China tried to spy on a civil servant by hiding a listening device in a teapot.

The UK Beijing embassy worker only found the bug when the pot smashed – and it was not thought to have picked up any secret or sensitive information.

And in June, Security Minister Tom Tugendhat blasted China for running “unacceptable” secret police stations in the UK.

In a stern warning to the Chinese Embassy in London, Mr Tugendhat said: “They must not operate in any form.”

In 2022, claims first emerged about Communist Party cops secretly spying on the Chinese diaspora from bases in Croydon, Hendon, and Belfast.

One station was even alleged to be operating out of a Cantonese restaurant in Glasgow, called Loon Fung.

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