China Spy Suspect Chaired Discussion With AIIB President Jin Liqun Weeks Before His Arrest — In Session Opened by Dominic Barton
LONDON — David Taylor, the man arrested Wednesday by Scotland Yard on suspicion of spying for China, also husband of a sitting Labour MP, chaired a high-level discussion with the outgoing president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank just ten weeks before his detention — an event opened by Dominic Barton, the former Canadian Ambassador to China and chair of Asia House — adding a significant new dimension to the growing scandal surrounding one of Britain’s most consequential espionage investigations in a generation.
On November 24, 2025, Asia House hosted Jin Liqun — then in the final weeks of his decade-long presidency of the Beijing-headquartered bank — for a keynote address on global governance and AIIB’s first decade. Barton, who serves as Chair of Asia House, opened the session. Taylor, identified as Director of Policy and Programmes at Asia House, then chaired a wide-ranging discussion between Jin and assembled business leaders. Taylor subsequently posted photographs of himself shaking hands with Jin to LinkedIn, tagging Barton among those connected to the event, describing the bank’s first decade as “a genuine success story” and praising the United Kingdom’s early membership as “the right call.”
Ten weeks later, Taylor was in counter-espionage custody on suspicion of assisting a foreign intelligence service.
A second man has also been identified. The Guardian reports that Matthew Aplin — a former press officer and special adviser with connections to Welsh Labour — is among those arrested, and is understood to be the partner of a former Labour MP.
The Bureau has previously reported on Barton's extensive network ties to Jin Liqun and to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney — relationships forged across decades of elite financial and diplomatic engagement with Beijing, including through the World Economic Forum. Barton's role at the November 24 event was not peripheral.
He opened the session at which Taylor hosted the outgoing president of a Chinese institution that, as The Bureau has reported, a growing number of experts regard as a vehicle for Chinese Communist Party influence projection.
That argument was made directly in a January 2026 Bureau op-ed by Bob Pickard, who served as global communications chief at AIIB until he resigned on principle in June 2023, alleging undue Communist Party influence in the bank’s everyday operations.
