London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Jul 21, 2025

MI6 chief thanks China for ‘free publicity’ after James Bond spoof

Rare response from Richard Moore comes after state news agency posted video mocking western intelligence

The head of MI6 has thanked China’s state news agency for “free publicity” after it posted a James Bond spoof video in response to a statement he made last year that Beijing was the spy agency’s “single greatest priority”.

Richard Moore, codenamed C, intervened after Xinhua released an extraordinary four-minute English-language video featuring a pair of supposed British spies, James Pond and an apparent Marvel universe recruit, Black Window.

Xinhua said the video, entitled No Time to Die Laughing, was leaked footage of a secret meeting between the British spies and their US counterparts. It features an elegantly dressed duo entering a country house and starting to discuss a dossier on Chinese espionage tactics, with canned laughter running throughout.


In reply, Moore tweeted: “Thank you for your interest (and the unexpected free publicity),” and he posted a copy of the speech he gave in November that had provoked Xinhua’s unexpected response.

In his address, the MI6 chief said a rising China had become the spy agency’s single greatest priority for the first time in its history, and he told Beijing it risked “miscalculating through over-confidence” over Taiwan.

It was one of several pointed remarks aimed at Beijing, traditionally an area where British ministers and officials have trodden carefully, including a warning about the spread of Chinese surveillance technology, which Moore said was used in “targeting the Uyghur population in Xinjiang”.

The agents in the video thank M – the Bond films’ moniker for the head of MI6 – for hyping up the Chinese threat. “You know what’s pathetic, using the fictional Chinese debt trap and data trap to secure our massive budget for next year,” Pond says, holding a glass of champagne to toast the agency’s success.

In his speech, Moore said China was asserting control over smaller countries – getting “people on the hook” – in Africa and elsewhere by forcing them to take on onerous borrowing in return for building vital infrastructure or taking control of their data to supply essential services.

Another conceit of the Xinhua video is the claim that it is not China that is tapping phones around the world but the US. Pond – described as “Agent 0.07” – learns from a call with a fictional CIA agent that his phone is being monitored by the Americans.

“Hey Pond, my advice is not to buy yourself a Huawei phone,” the US agent advises. It becomes clear to Pond that his phone is being tapped. “He’s obviously shaken and stirred now,” Black Window says in an aside to the camera.

“To be America’s enemy is dangerous. But to be America’s friend is fatal,” Pond concludes, with not much subtlety, before the conversation switches back to a defence of the Chinese telecoms firm Huawei. The American tells him there is a backdoor in Huawei’s software to allow covert surveillance.

Unexpectedly, this prompts a robust defence of Huawei by Black Window, who appears to have switched out of character: “You gotta stop this backdoor nonsense. If there was any shred of evidence, you folks would have made headlines of it.”

In June 2020 Britain announced it would remove Huawei kit from its 5G phone networks by 2027 after intense pressure from the Trump administration, claiming the technology was a potential security risk.

Nevertheless, the CIA character declines to back down, insisting: “There isn’t any 100% safe and clear cellphone on this planet, otherwise David Cameron and [Angela] Merkel would have gotten one for themselves” – naming former political leaders perhaps to avoid too direct a link to Boris Johnson, the current UK prime minister, already facing other difficulties involving his mobile phone.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Defends Attorney General Pam Bondi Amid Epstein Memo Backlash
Renault Shares Drop as CEO Luca de Meo Announces Departure Amid Reports of Move to Kering
Senior Aides for King Charles and Prince Harry Hold Secret Peace Summit
Anti‑Semitism ‘Normalised’ in Middle‑Class Britain, Says Commission Co‑Chair
King Charles Meets David Beckham at Chelsea Flower Show
If the Department is Really About Justice: Ghislaine Maxwell Should Be Freed Now
NYC Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Antifada’ Remarks Spark National Debate on Political Language and Economic Policy
×