Peter Wai, 38, and Bill Yuen, 65, are alleged to have acted on behalf of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and by extension, the People’s Republic of China, while operating in the UK.
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC told the Old Bailey on Wednesday that the men gathered information on “persons of interest” to Hong Kong and carried out surveillance.
Mr Atkinson said: “The defendants engaged in shadow policing operations on behalf of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and thereby the People’s Republic of China.
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“Acting as if they were entitled in this country to act as a law enforcement or state intelligence service, when no such entitlement existed.”
Yuen, a retired superintendent in the Hong Kong Police, was employed by the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office (HKETO) in London, said to be an extension in the UK of the Hong Kong government.
His duties allegedly went beyond administration to include active intelligence gathering for the Hong Kong authorities.
Wai, described as an officer with the UK Border Force and a special constable with the City of London Police, is said to have used his professional access and a private security company to further the alleged operations.
The activities are said to have taken place at a time when Hong Kong authorities were offering bounties of £100,000 for information leading to the capture of certain individuals, some of whom were residents in the UK.
Among those targeted was pro-democracy activist Nathan Law, for whom a bounty of £95,680 had been issued.
Messages between Yuen and Wai are said to reveal surveillance activities focused on Mr Law.
The pair are also accused of targeting Monica Kwong, who was living in Pontefract, West Yorkshire.
Wai, of Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey, and Yuen, of Hackney, east London, deny charges of assisting a foreign intelligence service and carrying out foreign interference by forcing entry into a UK residential address.
The alleged offences are said to have taken place between Wednesday, December 20, 2023, and Thursday, May 2, 2024.
Their trial is expected to last up to nine weeks.