Linn Maung
Chinese businessman-cum-spy Yang Tengbo’s relations with Britain’s Prince Andrew have brought to the fore the pattern of espionage Beijing is using for spying activities. Beijing has been trying to break into inner circles to gather sensitive information and manipulate the target country’s policies. While such attempts were thwarted by the US and European countries in the recent past, Beijing can be seen using people of Chinese origin or decoying foreign nationals for espionage activities.
In 2023, Ji Chaoqun, a Chinese engineer, was jailed for eight years for gathering information about aerospace technology and other technology from people working in the relevant sectors. He was convicted for being an agent of China’s Ministry of State Security. He was enlisted in the US Army Reserves in 2016, which allowed him to take photos of sensitive military infrastructure. Ji had plans to seek a job in the CIA, FBI or NASA and work there in cybersecurity, so he could have access to sensitive databases.
US Department of Justice said Ji was gathering “biographical information on certain individuals for possible recruitment” by China. He was tasked to “obtain access to advanced aerospace and satellite technologies being developed by companies within the US.” It said “Evidence presented at trial revealed that Ji worked at the direction of high-level intelligence officers in the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security, a provincial department of the Ministry of State Security for the People’s Republic of China.”
A German citizen of Chinese origin, Jian Guo, was found to be sending sensitive and secret information about European Parliament negotiations and decisions to Chinese intelligence services. “If it is confirmed that someone spied for China in the European Parliament, this is an attack from within on European democracy,” said Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
Notably, Jian Guo worked for parliamentarian and European election candidate Maximilian Krah of Alternative for Germany (AfD). Prosecutors said he snooped on Chinese dissidents in Germany. The Chinese threat drove Germany to draw a national security strategy, which seeks to contain activities against the country. “We take decisive action to counter all analogue and digital espionage and sabotage activities by Chinese intelligence services and state-controlled groups,” it reads.
Recently, a Chinese woman named Yaqi X was found to be sending sensitive and confidential information to the Chinese security agency. The information was about the transportation of military equipment and arms companies in Germany and flight, cargo and passenger data. Weijing Wang worked in Poland as a sales director at Huawei before he was arrested on account of spying for China.
British-Chinese solicitor Christine Lee was accused of interfering in UK politics. Lee resorted to a ‘seeding operation’ wherein money from China was used to influence political opinion which is suitable to the Communist Party of China. Ken McCallum head of the British intelligence agency MI5 said “It’s not always the case of seeking to influence a national leader or someone at cabinet level. One of the things that is very striking is that they are prepared to invest in cultivating people at local level potentially and at the outset of their political career.”
China has been recruiting people from other countries to steal sensitive information and spying activities. In 2017, the Netherlands arrested a spy who was about to leave for China. Belgium had expressed anger over the recruitment of a political party member by the Chinese as an intelligence asset. “The Chinese are trying to buy influence in order to destabilize our democracy. With Chinagate, or should I say Chinese Interest, it is all unrolling before our eyes,” said Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre de Croo.
Chinese intelligence officer Xu Yanjun was extradited from Belgium to the US over the charges of economic espionage and trade secret theft. He would build cordial relations with the employees of targetted companies to extract proprietary information and technological secrets from them. “They are stealing American technology to benefit their economy and military,” said the then FBI Assistant Director Alan Kohler “For those who doubt the real goals of the PRC [People’s Republic of China], this should be a wakeup call.”
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