China issued an official statement on Monday August 21 directly implicating a government official. The latter is accused of spying on behalf of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Last month, a new anti-espionage law was enacted to strengthen the margin of maneuver against such acts, which constitute, according to Beijing, a threat to national security.
The case announced Monday, which is still under investigation, involves a 39-year-old man, China’s Ministry of State Security said in a statement. He is an employee of an unspecified ministry, whose surname is Hao, he said. Her gender was not specified.
It was during his studies in Japan that the person met an employee of the United States Embassy and developed a close relationship with him, according to the Ministry of State Security.
The embassy employee would later have introduced Hao to another colleague, a CIA agent, who would have convinced him to spy for the American agency on his return to China.
Hao reportedly signed a contract and received training from the United States, before obtaining a job with the Chinese government, in accordance with American instructions. The suspect allegedly made several clandestine contacts with CIA personnel in China and provided them with information, the statement said.
In August, the Ministry of State Security released details of a first case accusing a Chinese national named Zeng, 52, of spying for the United States.
The statement stated that this person was in Italy for his studies, where he had befriended a CIA agent stationed in Rome. This agent convinced Zeng to provide sensitive information about the Chinese military in exchange for huge compensation and help so that Zeng and his family could settle in the United States, the Ministry of Security said. ‘State.
Beijing’s recent revision of its anti-spy law has many US companies doing business in China worried, amid tensions between the two countries. Under the new law, unauthorized obtaining of “documents, data, materials and objects related to security and national interests” can now amount to espionage.
