Until relatively recently, the very existence of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) was not officially acknowledged. In recent years, as with its sister agency, MI5, greater transparency has been considered helpful, not a hindrance, to the maintenance of national security.

This now extends not just to the occasional speech but in the case of the current MI6 chief Richard Moore, to tweeting and now a radio interview. He took to the BBC airwaves yesterday to talk about his role and issue some stark warnings about the ambitions and intentions of China. Then, in an address to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, he said the communist state was his service’s “single greatest priority”, taking the place of the Soviet Union during the Cold War and, more recently, international terrorism. 

China, he said, was using its economic policies, such as the Belt and Road initiative, to extend its global influence. But the biggest concern was Beijing’s rapidly growing capability to “harvest data from around the world” and gain access to personal and state information. Mr Moore warned that a “miscalculation” by an over-confident regime in Beijing over an issue such as Taiwan could pose a “serious challenge” to global peace.

He is right to say that modern democracies demand more light to be shone into the worlds of the intelligence agencies without compromising national security. Publicity also aids recruitment now that the old tap on the shoulder in an Oxbridge college quad is a thing of the past.

It is also gratifying to have it confirmed that the head of MI6 is still known as C and writes in green ink. Some things should never change.