The last chapter of this competition was the monitoring of what was said to be a Chinese “spy balloon” in the airspace of the United States, which was rejected by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stressing that it was “civilian” and used for research, especially for meteorological purposes.
Basically, espionage operations are based on deception and camouflage in order to know the secrets of the enemy or adversary to achieve political, military or economic goals, and to collect information with the aim of taking precautionary measures that limit the size of risks.
mutual operations
The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies has monitored nearly 160 publicly reported cases of Chinese espionage directed at the United States since 2000, as follows:
- 42 percent of these spies are Chinese military or government employees.
- 32 percent were Chinese citizens.
- 26 percent were non-Chinese (usually American people recruited by Chinese officials).
- Monitored incidents of obtaining commercial technologies came first with 51 percent, followed by cyber espionage with 41 percent, and then military technology in third place.
According to the American “The Athletic” website, the US and Chinese intelligence agencies have been wrestling with each other for decades, but what these recent cases indicate is that the intelligence war is escalating, and that China has increased the scope and complexity of its efforts to obtain information from the United States.
But many espionage cases do not go public, said one US intelligence official who declined to be identified. They will be held accountable at all, and they will be dealt with through other means.”
The growing intelligence war raging between Washington and Beijing for global dominance has used a number of traditional and modern tools, including cyberattacks against government databases and companies, obtaining trade secrets from the private sector, using venture capital to acquire sensitive technology, and targeting universities. and research institutions, in both countries.
Major issues of the new millennium
- July 2004: Yan Mingshan, a Chinese employee of a US software company developing ground-sensing technology for oil companies, gains unauthorized access to the company’s computer system and attempts to return that sensitive technology to China.
- October 2005: A number of Chinese intelligence agents collect technical information on current and future US Navy warship technologies, which they intend to send to China.
- April 2006: Chinese hackers infiltrate the NASA networks operated by Lockheed Martin and Boeing and steal information about the space shuttle Discovery program.
- June 2007: Chinese hackers infiltrate a Pentagon project and steal data on the F-35 fighter jet.
- May 2008: The Chinese inserted spyware on the laptop of former US Secretary of Commerce, Carlos Gutierrez, during a trade mission.
- August 2012: Former CIA agent Jerry Lee attempted to provide China with classified information about CIA activities inside China, and was sentenced to 19 years in prison.
- May 2014: The US Department of Justice announces that a federal grand jury has indicted five People’s Liberation Army officers for stealing confidential business information and intellectual property from US businesses and planting malware on their computers.
- August 2020: The arrest of a former CIA agent, Alexander Ma, who spied for Beijing, providing secret information to Chinese intelligence and exposing Washington’s agents.
- July 2021: The United States, NATO and its allies accuse China of using contract hackers to conduct an ongoing global cyberespionage campaign, including ransomware attacks, cyber extortion and cryptocurrency theft.
- October 2022: The US Department of Justice revealed what it described as a major espionage operation that the Chinese government had attempted to carry out through 13 people, including 10 working directly for the Chinese intelligence service, involving the smuggling of people and equipment from US institutions.
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