Why the US accuses China of espionage
The article by Giuseppe Gagliano
On October 24, 2022, thirteen intelligence officers employed by the People's Republic of China were charged with espionage by the United States Department of Justice.
Given the importance of the case, a press conference will be organized by the United States Attorney General and the Director of the FBI . Subject: the announcement of the indictment of thirteen Chinese citizens accused of espionage in three cases that mix pressure, an attempt to obstruct a federal investigation and an attempt at corruption.
In one of these missions, four Chinese spies allegedly conducted a lengthy recruitment operation in New Jersey between 2008 and 2018, to try to bribe American university professors with access to limited and strategic information for Beijing.
Under the guise of a university center created for the occasion (the Institute of International Studies), the Chinese agents would have started in particular to bribe a former American federal agent by offering him trips to China in exchange for sensitive technological information.
These arrests highlight the role of American counterintelligence in fighting foreign interference on their soil. "The actions announced today take place against the backdrop of malicious activities of the government of the People's Republic of China, including spying, attempts to disrupt our judicial system, harassment of individuals and ongoing efforts to steal sensitive US technologies," said the deputy prosecutor. United States General Lisa Monaco at the press conference on October 24, 2022.
Is this case of Beijing espionage any surprise? In no way. Back in 2014, the Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted Unit 61398 of the People's Liberation Army in a case of economic cyber-espionage.
In 2018, Xu Yanjun, a foreign intelligence bureau official in Jiangsu Province, was charged with attempting economic espionage. He would try to get information on General Electric Aviation and Safran, bringing experts and executives to China under the pretense of organizing university conferences. Arrested in Belgium and extradited, he will finally be sentenced in 2021 in the United States.
How to interpret this posture on the part of China through a more comprehensive approach?
Nicholas Eftimiades had already underlined in the early 2000s the risk of economic espionage operations becoming ever more pervasive and ever more dangerous. In 2018 he presented his study of 274 documented cases of Chinese espionage around the world. Beyond the explosion in the number of attempts, he draws three main lessons.
First, China operates through a network of government agencies, its military, public and private companies, individuals and universities; this interconnected network guarantees the formidable efficiency of Chinese maneuvers. On the other hand, it notes that half of Chinese efforts target US military and space technologies, while a quarter of operations target commercial interests. Finally, he finds the chances of China slowing down its initiatives low, as they allow it to stimulate its economy, develop its Research and Development (R&D) and project its military might.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/stati-uniti-cina-spionaggio/ on Sat, 05 Nov 2022 07:31:24 +0000.