The American public has hit a “watershed” moment in awareness and understanding of Chinese surveillance practices, which could provide an opportunity to understand some of the more surprising ways Beijing conducts its information-gathering operations.
“What’s interesting about this whole event of the past week is that it’s a wake-up call for your average American that in this country,” said Matt McInnes, a senior fellow at the Institute for the Study of Wars. How aggressive and widespread are China’s espionage activities.” China program said.
“There is probably no more aggressive espionage activity in the world than what China has been doing in the last few decades.”
The US government has located a high-altitude surveillance balloon, which was first spotted over Montana, hovering over Malmstrom Air Force Base, the Pentagon announced Thursday. The US uses this base to store nuclear weapons.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)
Senior State and Defense Department officials called the surveillance balloon’s presence in U.S. airspace an “unacceptable” violation of U.S. sovereignty, and the military shot the balloon down as it reached the Atlantic Ocean on Saturday afternoon.
McInnes said he hoped the spy balloon would serve as a “watershed” for the conversation about China’s surveillance in the U.S., “especially for people who are in a position to do something really important.”
The media has widely covered traditional methods of intelligence gathering and espionage – cyber security, satellites, double agents, honey traps and TikTok – but China has adopted an approach that some have described as a “mosaic” or “a vacuum”. Say, the goal is to get as much as possible. Potential information, no matter how small it may seem.
Here are some more subtle ways China uses its tools on American citizens and interests.
A plaque and flag hang outside the China Institute, home of the Confucius Institute in New York. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
financial
Many of China’s operations center around money, either in the form of bribes or blackmail or through unscrupulous methods such as funding and procurement of entities and people abroad.
“I remember about these matters. [money] That seems to be a big trigger,” McInnes said. It’s been a more common thing.”
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China wants to use this money to gain influence and access to US institutions, particularly government or academia.
Most famously, China tried to buy Westminster Choir College in 2018, with the Chinese government operating through a for-profit company, according to NPR. Some alleged that Beijing was interested in working closer to Princeton University, which has a reputation as a study center for the US intelligence community.
Beijing also provided funding to a few college institutions to open new facilities as part of Confucius Institute networks, including Major Evers College’s Brooklyn Campus and Columbia University, the New York Post reported.
A Chinese flag waves in front of the Great Hall of the People on October 29, 2015 in Beijing, China. (Reuters/Jason Lee)
The institutions provide lessons in Chinese language, history and culture, but the US State Department in 2020 labeled the schools part of China’s propaganda apparatus.
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“The university’s disclosure of funding from foreign sources fully complies with federal requirements for reporting donations,” a Columbia spokeswoman said at the time.
MacInnes explained that while most people wouldn’t see education funding as espionage, it provides “entrance into a lot of institutions, organizations, academic businesses, civic organizations that make China ideologically better.” It allows for a better understanding of how America works.”
“[They learn] How our business community, scientific community, political organizations and public opinion work together to develop and improve future influence and disinformation and other actions,” said McInnis.
“I think they understand us better than we understand them,” he added.
An American flag with the Chinese national emblem is waved during a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on November 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Long-term assets
American media widely covered the revelations of an agent, known as Feng Feng or Christine Feng, who used campaign fundraising, networking, or even romantic and sexual relationships with Americans to gain access to political power. Targeted the incoming politicians.
But China can and reportedly does turn American businessmen and government officials into assets.
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“There are many classic stories over the decades of how Chinese security services set up surveillance operations at hotels or casinos frequented by Americans or others and caught them for blackmail, drug use, sexual activity and other things. Trying to press for a record. Maybe going on in those places,” McInnes said, clarifying that he was not personally aware of any cases.
According to McInnes, the fact that “it’s nearly impossible for any American to travel to China with electronics and be confident that they haven’t been compromised,” which They claim that he can provide China with much-needed sensitive information. It can use it for “potential espionage and blackmail activities”.
A survey conducted by Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found 160 publicly reported instances of Chinese espionage in the US between 2000 and 2020.
Chinese Embassy in Washington DC on May 18, 2012 (Robert McPherson/AFP via Getty Images)
Of those that CSIS could identify, 26% were “non-Chinese actors,” defined as “U.S. persons generally recruited by Chinese authorities.” These incidents included attempts to obtain information about military technology, commercial technology or US civilian agencies or politicians.
“China tends to get data on technologies in the early stages of the R&D cycle before all the relevant data is classified at a higher level and is more difficult to obtain, certainly before an actual weapon is developed. systems should be designed,” Rebecca Koffler, president of Theology. And Strategy Consulting and a former intelligence officer of the DIA said.
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“This approach allows China to speed up the development and implementation phases by not having to spend the same amount of money on R&D,” he explained. “Some Chinese military hardware looks similar to American systems because they are based on stolen technology and sometimes designs.
“China is the biggest counterintelligence threat to the US, followed by Russia.”
Law enforcement
One of the most prominent examples of China’s more aggressive actions involves the alleged establishment of unauthorized “police stations” in American and European cities to monitor its citizens overseas.
President Biden, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands before their meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit on November 14, 2022 in Bali, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
“These actions avoid bilateral police and judicial cooperation and violate international law and may violate territorial integrity in third countries involved in establishing parallel policing mechanisms using illegal methods,” Safeguard Defenders, a human rights watchdog, said in a report. Released in September 2022.
According to The Guardian, the initial purpose of the stations was allegedly focused on dealing with overseas nationals, but the report also linked them to efforts to spread Chinese influence and propaganda overseas.
But Beijing’s reach also extends to American law enforcement officers, such as the case of veteran FBI electronics technician Qin Shan “Joey” Chun, who was caught in a 2015 sting operation and charged as an unregistered foreign agent. The offense of working on was found and two were sentenced. years in prison, The New York Post reported.
In 2020, NYPD cop and Army reservist Baimadajie Angwang was charged with spying on fellow Tibetan-Americans and providing information to a handler at the Chinese consulate in Manhattan.
The Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., was asked to comment on the ongoing spying allegations, and an embassy spokesman responded by echoing comments made by China’s foreign ministry last week on the surveillance balloon.
Eric Shawn of Fox News contributed to this report.
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