Rishi Sunak has told his Chinese counterpart of his ‘significant concerns’ about Beijing‘s interference in British democracy amid claims of spying in Parliament.

The Prime Minister confronted Chinese premier Li Qiang during an informal discussion at the G20 summit in India.

It comes after two men were arrested under the Official Secrets Act amid allegations that a parliamentary researcher spied for China.

The researcher reportedly had links to several senior Tory MPs, including security minister Tom Tugendhat and Alicia Kearns, the chair of the House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee.

A No 10 spokesman said: ‘The Prime Minister met Premier Li Qiang and conveyed his significant concerns about Chinese interference in the UK’s parliamentary democracy.’ 

The Briton was arrested along with another man by officers on March 13 on suspicion of spying for Beijing, it was revealed by the Sunday Times.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, which oversees espionage-related offences, are investigating.

One of the men, in his 30s, was detained in Oxfordshire on March 13, while the other, in his 20s, was arrested in Edinburgh, Scotland Yard said.

Both were held on suspicion of offences under section one of the Official Secrets Act 1911, which punishes offences that are said to be ‘prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state’.

‘Searches were also carried out at both the residential properties, as well as at a third address in east London,’ a statement from the Met Police said.

Both men were held at a south London police station until being bailed until early October.

Mr Tugendhat is said not to have had any contact with the researcher since before he became security minister in September last year.

Ms Kearns declined to comment, adding: ‘While I recognise the public interest, we all have a duty to ensure any work of the authorities is not jeopardised.’

According to the newspaper, the researcher held a parliamentary pass and worked with MPs on international policy, including relations with Beijing, for several years. 

Mr Sunak has been under pressure from Tory MPs to take a tougher stance on China after he stopped short of formally declaring Beijing a ‘threat’.

The PM has instead referred to China as an ‘epoch-defining challenge’ to the West.

Earlier this year, Parliament’s intelligence watchdog warned that Chinese spies are targeting Britain ‘prolifically and aggressively’ with Beijing managing to penetrate ‘every sector of the economy’.

The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) warned the UK is of ‘significant interest to China when it comes to espionage and interference’, placing the country ‘just below China’s top priority targets’.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk this morning warned that China had to be taken ‘extremely seriously’ but insisted the UK had to ‘engage’ with Beijing.

Risking a slip-up over Mr Sunak’s preferred choice of language when referring to China, Mr Chalk told Sky News: ‘The PM has been very clear when it comes to China, it’s an epoch-defining threat… challenge, forgive me.

‘So of course we’ve got to take it extremely seriously and I know the police and, no doubt, other agencies will take it seriously as well and let’s learn whatever lessons need to be learned.’

He added: ‘You can’t wish China away, China is the world’s second-biggest economy.

‘If we are going to meet the challenge of climate change, we can’t do it without China.

‘They’re responsible for about 27 or 28 per cent of emissions, we’re about one per cent.

‘So we have to engage but we do so with our eyes open.

‘That’s why we take steps such as ensuring Huawei is out of our 5G network, at the same time recognising there’s a sensible engagment to have and that’s the position we’re in.’

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, an outspoken critic of China who has been sanctioned by Beijing, said there were ‘big questions to be asked about parliamentary security’.

He also warned Britain had been ‘deeply penetrated by the Chinese because of our ambivalent attitude towards them’, as he demanded a ‘change in position’ from the Government towards Beijing.

Sir Iain told Times Radio: ‘It is a significant breach in security. It’s a significant breach in security in parliamentary terms.

‘So there are big questions to be asked about parliamentary security, about the vetting of people who work for different groups that are made up of parliamentarians.’

He added: ‘I think we are deeply penetrated by the Chinese because of our ambivalent attitude towards them. Therefore, people tend to turn a blind eye. 

‘You know, people like me get criticised because we make too much of this and then you see this happening.

‘If you can penetrate parliament like this over such a long period of time…  then how many other institutions with less levels of security are being penetrated on a daily basis?’

The snow no longer felt cold. In fact, it felt warm and fluffy. I closed my eyes – and began to drift off.

I was utterly exhausted. Frozen numb and low on oxygen at around 22,600ft up Everest’s Tibetan ascent.

Surrounded by crevasses and treacherous drops, I stopped at an ice bed for rest, failing to realize how easily these mountains can claim lives.

‘Come on, Sadie,’ one of my group’s sherpas, Nima, demanded. ‘We’re not far. Just another hour, then we’re there.’

He was kind, but firm. Because he knew all too well: if I’d fallen asleep, I might never have woken up.

That was March 2018 – and memories of that trepidatious climb came flooding back this week as drone footage of 27-year-old Pakistani Muhammad Hassan’s dying moments on the slopes of the K2 mountain went viral.

We all watched in horror as a mortally injured Muhammad, a sherpa (known as ‘porters’ in Pakistan), lay motionless at 27,000ft, wedged into the snowy rockface of K2 – second in height only to Everest but more fatal.

As is now common on these ‘bucket-list’ peaks, Muhammad was far from alone – surrounded by dozens of eager climbers, many from the West, who pay hefty sums to be shepherded safely to the summit by adept local guides just like Muhammad.

Nima was my Muhammad. And how lucky I was to have him to keep me awake, to hold my hand.

Muhammad wasn’t so lucky – perhaps precisely because he was a sherpa and not a paying tourist.

And as mountaineers took it in turns to apathetically step over the father-of-three’s limp body in their relentless pursuit of the peak, his life slipped away.

Just two climbers were reported to have stopped to help. By the end, he was so stricken he couldn’t talk or even hear.

Worse, a group of Norwegian climbers posted pictures on social media moments after his death celebrating a record-busting ascent time that no doubt would have been scuppered had they paused to come to Muhammad’s aid.

Disgusting, yes. But, sadly, as someone who has spent over a decade in the unique and bizarre world of elite climbing, I can tell you that this travesty of inhumanity was a disaster waiting to happen.

Sure, sherpas and porters look out for each other even if tourists don’t, but at the end of the day, they are under enormous pressure to prioritize their clients.

And these clients, predominantly high-flying, uber-rich Westerners, change at high altitudes.

These might well be decent, kind people at base camp. But, high up as the atmosphere thins, at the peak of human achievement, as the very top of the world looms into view, the look in their eyes can turn menacing.

Why should they jeopardize their own slim chance of success to help another climber? It’s every man for himself.

There’s also the money. An Everest or K2 climb will set you back the better part of $50,000. Even for the few who can afford that, it’s likely a one-time thing.

Training also takes months, often away from family and friends in arduous conditions, acclimatizing to altitudes and building fitness. Sacrifice is essential – and when push comes to shove, the fear of failure can overwhelm you.

I first heard about the concept of ‘summit fever’ – the dangerous compulsion to reach the top no matter the costs – during a 2010 lecture at The Explorers Club in New York City.

As a 23-year-old with no mountaineering experience at the time, I was appalled.

You might die, others might die, but so be it. Surely not, I thought.

But as my experience grew – climbing in Tibet, Nepal, Africa, Russia, Argentina in my holidays – I soon realized ‘summit fever’ is a real and terrifying phenomenon.

By far, the worst offenders I have seen on the mountains are monied amateurs.

Both men and women, transformed into arrogant monsters, decked out in all the most expensive gear but often with no idea, yet insistent that their spending must precipitate success.

Such people also tend treat the sherpas and porters terribly.

They’re also invariably over-ambitious, unfit and often put their guides in real danger at high altitudes.

Nonetheless, the rapid rise of adventure tourism and ‘peak bragging’ has made healthy business for local communities – though only in relative terms (a sherpa can expect to earn $5,000 in a climbing season).

And make no mistake: theirs is the most dangerous job in the world.

I went to Everest in 2018 to set a world record for the highest dinner party, which would take place at 23,149ft – some 6,000ft from the summit.

The expedition raised money for the Nepalese community in the wake of the devastating 2015 earthquake, and thankfully sponsors covered my prohibitive costs.

The sherpas and porters who completed the world record with us became our friends and – as I know all too well – some of us owe them our lives.

They taught us how to dance to Nepali pop, while we treated them to a high-altitude egg and spoon race.

But such an experience is the exception.

On the whole, the marked segregation between the clients and local guides verges on abuse: they’re split off into separate tents and even eat different foods.

No prizes for guessing who gets the tastier dinner.

And this doesn’t just happen in Asia’s Himalayas but in all the world’s poor mountainous regions – from Africa to South America.

And it’s in that context that Muhammad Hassan’s death is as sickening as it is unsurprising. One where sherpas and porters are treated as second-class human beings.

Being completely fair, a mountain rescue at Muhammad’s altitude and in such snowy conditions probably wouldn’t have been best advised or even necessarily possible. But it says everything that so few people bothered to even try.

These men and women adore the mountains they call home. How shameful that Muhammad had to pay with his life just to help others experience that joy.