Chinese spies tried to hack into the emails of a top Tory MP, before the phishing effort was thwarted by Microsoft.
Alicia Kearns, the Chairwoman of the foreign affairs committee, revealed that her official parliamentary email had been targeted, but Microsoft noticed the attempt and intervened.
The hacking attempt was traced back to China, according to Parliament’s security authorities.
Kearns said it was an attempt by the eastern power to “try and silence those of us who are outspoken”.
Kearns said the attempt was one of many to silence those who have called out China in the past.
The MP has been outspoken about China’s influence in the past, previously calling them a “hostile state”.
This comes after an investigation, published in The Times, discovered that a Chinese spy has being using LinkedIn to target British officials.
Using the world’s biggest professional networking site, the spy tried to bribe civil servants and officials to hand over state secrets in exchange for money.
The spy, whose main alias is Robin Zhang, created numerous fake identities to try and target anyone with access to classified information.
Zhang is thought to be one of the most prolific agents working in the UK in years, according to Western security officials.
The Government officials were lured with offers of thousands of pounds in money, business deals and trips to conferences.
Some who fell for it even ended up sending him CVs.
Kearns, who has also fallen victim to Chinese spies’ attempts to infiltrate her data, said those who fell for the bribes need to take “personal responsibility”.
She told Times Radio: “It is your job to make sure that you are not selling secrets, you are not giving away information, you're not being flattered into giving speeches.