All the intelligence links between the CIA, China and Italy
According to the Global Times, the CIA recruited a Chinese government employee in Italy who passed military information to the United States.
A Chinese government employee gave "critical information" about the Chinese military to the United States after being recruited by a Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) officer in Italy, the Chinese nationalist tabloid Global Times said.
The allegation was made in a statement released on Friday by China's civilian intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), on its WeChat social media account.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT “ZENG”, THE CIA MAN IN CHINA
The MSS statement did not specify the period during which the alleged espionage took place. Ma called the alleged spy as "Zeng" and described him as a 52-year-old "staff member of a Chinese military industrial group and a top confidential employee" of the Chinese state. According to the Global Times , Zeng had been sent to Italy by his employer, presumably to pursue university studies or receive technical training. While in Italy, Zeng was allegedly approached by an employee of the US embassy in Rome, whom the MSS identified as "Seth".
According to the MSS, Seth was a CIA officer who befriended Zeng through "dinners, parties, outings and outings." The Chinese man "developed a psychological dependence" on Seth and was "indoctrinated" by him "with Western values," the MSS statement said. Seth finally convinced Zeng to sign a deal with the CIA to do some espionage. Upon returning to China from his stay in Italy, Zeng is alleged to have carried out espionage for his CIA handlers. The MSS claims that Zeng gave his CIA handlers a great deal of information.
INFORMATION ON THE CHINESE ARMED FORCES
The information Zeng allegedly provided to the CIA concerned "key developments on the Chinese military" to which he had access through his employer. In exchange for this information, Zeng is accused of having received a huge amount of money from his CIA handlers. The latter also promised him that they would help his family emigrate to the United States. The spy agency said Zeng remains in detention while the case is under investigation. The MSS statement stressed Chinese nationals living or traveling overseas of the "risks and dangers" of recruitment by Western spy agencies.
Reuters news agency said it had contacted the US embassy in Beijing about the MSS allegations but received no response.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/cina-spia-cia/ on Thu, 17 Aug 2023 05:37:27 +0000.