China’s foremost spy agency announced on Monday that it is probing a senior official believed to be engaged in espionage for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). This is the second such claim within a span of 10 days as China strengthens its counterintelligence efforts amid severe economic challenges.
The individual, a 39-year-old Chinese citizen with the surname Hao, held a position within a ministry and is alleged to have been recruited as a CIA operative while studying in Japan. The Ministry of State Security (MSS), overseeing intelligence and security operations, released a statement revealing these details. However, the statement did not disclose Hao’s gender or the specific ministry of employment.
This revelation comes less than two weeks after the same spy agency accused a worker in the military-industrial sector of spying for the CIA. The MSS has been urging the public to participate in their “grim and complex” counterespionage campaign, a move that has raised concerns in the United States.
Yet, analysts and observers believe that Beijing’s focus on alleged American spies serves to divert attention from the severe economic challenges faced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Details provided by the typically secretive MSS indicated how the government employee was transformed into a CIA informant. The ministry stated that Hao initially encountered a U.S. Embassy official known as “Ted” during visa processing. Allegedly, Ted invited Hao for dinners, offered gifts, and enlisted Hao’s assistance in writing a paper for which Ted promised payment. Ted introduced Hao to a colleague named Li Jun before concluding his embassy term in Japan. Li and Hao then established a “cooperative relationship.”
According to the ministry’s account, Li, who purportedly was a Tokyo-based CIA staff member, “instigated Hao into rebelling” and encouraged Hao to return to China to work for a crucial and core unit. Hao allegedly signed an espionage agreement, agreeing to receive assessment and training from the United States.
After returning, Hao reportedly worked in a national department and fulfilled the CIA’s requirements by providing intelligence while receiving U.S. pay.
Experts such as Feng Chongyi, a China studies academic at the University of Technology Sydney, suggested that the motivation behind the publicizing of these cases could be a desire to appease Xi Jinping, China’s paramount leader, who emphasized that external threats to the country have become more intricate.
Lai Jianping, a former Chinese lawyer and current affairs commentator, linked the recent allegations of espionage to the CCP’s political instability and economic downturn. He argued that as the number of unemployed youth increases, Chinese authorities have ceased releasing unemployment data for young people aged 16 to 24. Official data indicated that the youth jobless rate reached a record high of 21.3% in June.
Furthermore, the recent bankruptcy filing of Evergrande, a major Chinese real estate company, and the financial struggles faced by other developers have cast a shadow on the economy. Lai noted that such challenges could lead to the CCP’s weakening control over the country.
Lai posited that the CCP might be employing the strategy of creating external enemies to divert public attention from domestic economic issues. The existence of alleged American intelligence sources would provide a pretext for tightening ideological control over the populace, he added.
The CCP has called upon its citizens to actively engage in a campaign to counter foreign espionage following the expansion of an anti-espionage law that took effect in July. This legislation widens the definition of espionage and raises concerns about a more hostile environment for foreign businesses and journalists in China.
In a bid to mobilize the entire society for anti-espionage efforts, the secretive MSS launched an official account on the Chinese social media platform WeChat. In July, it posted its first message titled “Anti-Espionage Fight Requires the Mobilization of the Entire Society!”
CIA Director William Burns acknowledged that the agency has made progress in rebuilding intelligence operations in China. Beijing’s claims of CIA spies might be fabricated or hold some element of truth, as some individuals may be inclined to subvert the dictatorship of the Chinese Communist Party through various means.
Source: with agencies