Why the Chinese 'spies' the White House sent home were the wrong ones

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/09/02/why-the-white-house-sent-the-wrong-chinese-spies-home/

By William Johnson
blogs.reuters.com
September 2, 2015

With Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit rapidly approaching, a 
testy exchange between American and Chinese officials over undeclared 
Chinese law enforcement personnel operating on U.S. soil will likely add 
to the friction between the two powers.

According to the New York Times — and confirmed by China’s state-run 
Xinhua News Agency – the Obama administration told China to stop using 
members of its Ministry of Public Security to seek out Chinese citizens 
who had fled to the United States with large amounts of allegedly 
ill-gotten cash — and then pressure the embezzlers to return home. While 
the United States has cooperated in other extradition cases, it refused to 
allow Chinese law enforcement officials to use threats and coercive 
tactics to get the fugitives to “voluntarily” return to China.

Despite the fact that China has subsequently recalled these operatives, 
Beijing will continue to maintain a large and very active espionage 
presence in the United States. While some media outlets have referred to 
the departing individuals as “spies,” they are actually police officers. 
The actual spies aren’t going anywhere, and expelling these officers will 
have virtually no impact on China’s spying in the United States.

While events like the recently disclosed hack of the Office of Personnel 
Management get most of the media attention, China’s human intelligence 
operations are extensive and arguably more damaging, as they can involve 
not only intellectual property, but sensitive military information. Recent 
espionage cases against Chinese operatives show that the efforts are 
massive, well-planned and persistent.

[...]

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