Chinese dissident Qi Hong, who drew international attention in August 2025 after remotely projecting anti-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) slogans onto buildings in Chongqing University Town, recently reported difficulties obtaining assistance in the United Kingdom after his bank account was allegedly frozen by Chinese authorities.
According to Qi, he contacted local police for help after losing access to funds needed to support his wife and two children in the UK. During the call, a Mandarin interpreter provided through a police contractor allegedly questioned why his family had left China, asked whether they were seeking political asylum, and criticized their decision to bring their children abroad. Qi further claimed that when he attempted to explain his situation and distress, the interpreter refused to relay parts of his statements to police.
Qi subsequently filed a complaint regarding the interpretation service. Police informed him that the interpreter was employed by an external language-services contractor rather than by the police force itself. The incident has raised concerns about potential CCP influence within overseas Chinese-language interpreter networks.
Those concerns were reinforced by a UK government report released in February 2026, which warned that the CCP’s United Front Work Department and organized crime groups have sought to influence segments of the Chinese-speaking community in Britain, including interpreter networks.
Source: Epoch Times, June 2, 2026
https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/26/6/2/n14780130.htm