WATCH: Defence minister issues alert on widespread China spying threat

will. Now, the Security Minister, Dan Jarvis

Yep, he's been speaking to the Commons. He says China is attempting to recruit and cultivate

individuals with access to sensitive information about Parliament and the UK government. This

activity involves a covert attempt by a foreign power to interfere with our sovereign affairs

in favour of its own interests, and this government will not tolerate it

So let's speak to James, our look and find out about this. So when you say look

that, you know, the government won't tolerate it, what can the government actually do about it

What way would you not tolerate it? Well, good morning. The first thing that we've done is called it out

put it in the public domain, highlight that we know what these Chinese actors are doing

and to publish advice from MI5 to give to parliamentarians, their staff

But I think that advice, which is now available on the internet, applies to businesses and individuals as well

Be careful who you're connecting with online. Be careful what links you're clicking on and be careful about the information that you're sharing

I think it's exactly right that in this new era of threats where we're seeing our adversaries cooperate together and pose different challenges to the United Kingdom than we've seen in the past

that there's something that we can all do, but especially those people that are involved with our politics

that we know that there are actors abroad who want to get close

who want to learn snippets of information that might seem innocuous in one conversation

but when pieced together can provide more details than we would like them to have about our security

And that why Dan Jarvis the security minister revealed this in the Commons yesterday and why he also announced increased funding in the technologies and the counter activities of our intelligence services to get after this increasing problem

But with all of that in mind, when we're looking at these plans for a Chinese super embassy near Tower Bridge

just three miles away from Westminster, where there have been concerns raised about those sensitive data cables underneath

carrying lots of information not only to the City of London, but also through to Westminster as well

Why is this government pushing that decision about whether or not to give approval to that super embassy to China

Why are you pushing that decision down the road? That needs to be a rejection, doesn't it, especially in light of what MI5 has now highlighted

Well, we're a nation of laws and the planning process is governed by a legal framework

But because of the national security concerns that have been raised by the Foreign Office and Home Office

the government said that we will need more time to consider those. But we've also said that a decision on this quasi-judicial planning process will be taken by the 10th of December

But I think it's worth your viewers understanding that our intelligence services are used to dealing with foreign embassies in our capital

We have a Chinese embassy in our capital currently, a Russian embassy, an Iranian embassy

So we're used to dealing with those. But we also need to be alive to the fact that the threats posed by Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and others aren't just limited to what can happen in a building

It's about the pervasiveness of their technologies as well. And when there's Chinese tech in pretty much all our homes and in many of the businesses up and down the country, we need to be very aware of the risks that are posed by that, as well as being able to properly understand and mitigate any threats that may exist from embassies and from any Chinese intelligence