As a California-based veteran dissident and anti-Chinese government activist, Arthur Liu, the father of Olympic figure skater Alyssa Liu, wasn’t particularly surprised to receive a call from the FBI.
“I was told that the Chinese government had sent spies to the San Francisco Bay area to get my and my daughter’s passport information,” he told the BBC.
“I wouldn’t say I was shocked, but I thought, wow, they’re taking this very seriously.”
a suspicious call
At first, Liu did not connect the dots after receiving a “suspicious” call from a man claiming to be from the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, arguing that he was conducting “a preparatory review” for the trip to the Winter Olympics in February 2022.
“I didn’t really realize it was someone who wasn’t from the Olympic Committee,” Liu recalled. “I just decided to do the right thing and not give any information. That’s just not the way we present passports.”
The voice on the other end of the line, US authorities believe, was Anthony Ziburis, a former prison guard and bodyguard for the state of Florida.
His mission was to spy on and discredit Chinese dissidents for Beijing’s intelligence services. The dissidents reportedly included two US citizens, Liu and Yan Xiong, a US Army chaplain and congressional candidate who had been involved in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
In March Ziburis was charged by the US Department of Justice with espionage for the Chinese government. But he is far from the only one. So far this year, US agents have charged at least 12 people, including several US citizens, with harassing and spying on US residents for China.
The warning from MI5 and the FBI
Charges were also filed on July 8 against two more people who were part of the same scheme as those targeting Liu.
Liu’s case comes at a time of tension, both in the US and the UK, due to the increase in Chinese espionage activities around the world.
In an unprecedented public appearance last week at the MI5 compound in London, the leaders of the US and UK security services warned of a vast espionage network and hacking program – the largest of all. the other great countries of the world combined- run from China.
These programs are believed to be part of a larger, growing and multi-faceted effort to give China an advantage over its rivals and to silence or suppress perceived threats to the Chinese Communist Party government.
The strategy includes all sorts of efforts, from hacking to spies at the gates.
China’s “five poisons”
Former intelligence agents in the US say the people most likely to be targeted are those believed to have connections to what the Chinese government has identified as the “five poisons” that threaten it.
These are: Tibetan and Uyghur separatists, the Falung Gong spiritual movement, independence activists in Taiwan and, as is the case with Liu, members of the pro-democracy movement in China.
Alarmingly, these efforts are expected to escalate amid worsening Sino-US relations, and not even US citizens are spared.
For Liu, who fled China via Hong Kong after the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, the thought of being spied on was ever present.
An earlier attempt ended when he unwittingly befriended a would-be agent, a student introduced to him through a local Chinese diaspora network contact whom he helped find housing in the US.
“One or two years later he told me that he had been asked to spy on me. It was a condition for him to come (to the United States),” Liu said. “But then she didn’t want to do it.”
Computer and human espionage
Espionage on Chinese citizens living abroad comes in many forms: from attempts to hack into their emails and devices, to the placement of human agents within their social circles or expatriate organizations.
Electronic methods are often used to “facilitate” human espionage.
“You can spy on someone online and get an idea of their contacts,” said Christopher Johnson, a former chief China analyst at the CIA. “Then maybe you get close to those people. One thing leads to another.”
Beijing attacks dissidents like Liu because it believes they are part of a “global narrative battle” between China and the West, Johnson added.
Those who speak out publicly against the regime may hamper China’s efforts to present itself in a positive light.
This has taken on “renewed importance in the last two years,” he said.
Your side of the story
“They use the outdated Marxist term of ‘speech power.’ It’s the idea that they themselves should tell China’s story through their own propaganda.”
The Chinese government did not respond to a request for comment.
When Ziburis was indicted in March, Beijing Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian accused the United States of “unjustified denigration and defamation” against China.
However, current and former US intelligence officials have repeatedly warned of a major campaign of Chinese espionage in the US.
In a speech earlier this year, FBI Director John Wray said Chinese espionage operations in the United States are “more brazen” than ever.
This makes sense as the Biden administration frames the rivalry between the United States and China within the global struggle between democracies and autocracies, Johnson stated.
One case every 12 hours
According to the FBI, the bureau opens a new China-related counterintelligence case every 12 hours. Until February, more than 2,000 cases were open.
Despite this, Johnson called US efforts to stop Chinese espionage “dismal.”
“They’re more willing to put in the effort to pull it off than we are to try to dissuade it,” he said.
The FBI estimates that there are “hundreds” of dissidents in the US that China hopes to target as part of an increasingly aggressive campaign of personal and political retaliation.
“Most of the targets are permanent residents or naturalized citizens — people with important rights and protections under US law,” said Director Wray.
“I don’t mind”
Liu, for his part, said he doesn’t think efforts to spy on him will ever stop.
The most recent attempt, however, had an additional complication.
At the time of the FBI call, Alyssa Liu, who had posted content about China’s treatment of the Uyghur ethnic minority on social media, was almost certain to travel to Beijing.
Liu acknowledged that he was “tremendously concerned” for her safety, but chose not to tell her at the time.
“I didn’t want him to go to China with a heavy load on his shoulders,” he said. “I wanted him to go and enjoy the Olympic experience.”
A year later, he stated that he would not be surprised if the FBI contacted him again, although he hopes “he doesn’t have to do this again.”
“I learned to behave like a normal person. They (the Chinese government) can do whatever they want, I can’t stop them. I don’t care,” he said.
“I will continue to speak out against certain behaviors and any kind of violation of human rights. Nothing will stop me from doing so.”
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BBC-NEWS-SRC: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-internacional-62117259, IMPORTING DATE: 2022-07-12 22:30:05
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