Chinese ‘state actors’ pose a threat to the UK’s national security ‘every day’, the head of MI5 said as he revealed the Security Service stepped in to thwart one in the past week.

Sir Ken McCallum also admitted in his annual address that he was ‘frustrated’ by the collapse of the Westminster spying trial.

He said the UK needed to ‘defend itself resolutely’ against China while also being able to ‘seize the opportunities’ from having a relationship with Beijing.

In a speech at MI5’s London headquarters, he said: ‘The UK-China relationship is, by its nature, complex, but MI5’s role is not: we detect and deal, robustly, with activity threatening national security.’

He highlighted attempts by China to carry out ‘cyber espionage’, ‘clandestine technology transfer’, efforts to ‘interfere cove

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