Ireland’s Golden Visa Blunder: Did Chinese Intelligence Benefit from Visa Scheme?

The Irish government has opted to close its “golden visa” scheme in recent weeks, as the exploitation of the system by Chinese assets has spooked the government amidst growing concerns over Chinese activities in Europe. 

Ostensibly marketed towards Irish Americans, the wealthy immigrant investor scheme sought to bring non-EU migrants with fortunes of over $2 million into the country. 

However, former Fine Gael members have shown themselves keen to get cosy with China, as former Taoiseach Enda Kenny has shown in his President of the Ireland China Institute. Alan Duke’s Asia Matters think tank has also been accused of maintaining seedy connections to Beijing.

The Irish government has now sought to clamp down on its liberal visa scheme and shut it down, particularly since the scheme was dominated by Chinese people last year. In a Chinese business survey, Ireland was ranked the fifth most preferred destination for immigration by Chinese investors.

In light of this “golden visa” programme, the dodgy Chinese intelligence connections to the Irish government are a point of contention. Ignoring the association of former Fine Gael politicians to Beijing, the Chinese intelligence asset Christine Lee is known to have met with Department of Justice officials to discuss how her business associates could utilise the state’s Immigrant Investor Programme to their advantage in obtaining residency visas. 

MI5 accused Lee of being an asset for the Chinese Communist Party and stated she was involved in political influence in Britain, such as bribing British politicians on behalf of the Chinese government. Considering the operation of known intelligence assets in Ireland, the national security scandal over the use of Chinese security cameras in Leinster House is a rookie mistake perpetrated by a government increasingly out of its depth in international diplomacy. 

Ireland need not be an American colony to prevent Chinese intervention in State Affairs, rather it needs to behave like a real country and bar Chinese influence with the power of the state. Irish politicians have proved themselves immoral and foolish by allowing such infiltration for the sake of financial boosts and bribery. 

China, though a distant country, serves to shake up the international system in a manner that both provide new opportunities and serious warnings to European states searching to orient themselves in the twenty-first century. 

This does not mean Young Fine Gael’s foreign policy diktat – sending Ireland’s fisherman fleet into Chinese waters to demand Taiwanese independence – is structurally sound, but rather hints at an extremely easy solution that the government is too corrupt and liberal to pursue – preventing Chinese influence from entering the country by prohibiting suspected businesses, networks, and intelligence assets from positions of influence and operation in Ireland.