Even as the scourge of coronavirus, which first emerged from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, presumably from the wet markets that operated in the city, ravages countries across the globe, a sinister plan appears to have been set in motion by Beijing as the world finds itself engulfed in the chaos induced by the rampaging contagion. From the Himalayas to the South China Sea, China is aggressively pushing to extend its territorial claims, exploiting nations who are overwhelmed by the Chinese virus.
#Gravitas | Journalists, political leaders, policy makers, and researchers have been revealed as members of a larger Chinese spy ring. @palkisu tells you how China’s espionage activities abroad are growing. pic.twitter.com/MPR6wZdEEo
— WION (@WIONews) June 26, 2020
Now, an explosive report by Wion reveals that China is aggressively scaling up its non-traditional espionage activities across the world. The report states that the scale of the spy rings operated by China is unprecedented and is much larger than that of the cold war era. It also claims that the Chinese spy rings include people from all professions—journalists, policymakers, political leaders, researches and many others.
An Australian MP, Shaoquette Moselmane, is currently being investigated on charges of being a member of this global Chinese spy ring. The legislator is extremely pro-China and vocal about his inclination towards China. He had recently even applauded China for its response to tame the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Since China’s autocratic Chinese Communist Party(CCP) has a pervasive control over the discourse in the country, it is generously employing people in important positions abroad to carry out its propaganda activities in other countries and effect decisions in its favour.
China has taken snooping to an altogether different level and the Australian MP is not the only one who is allegedly part of this well-oiled Chinese spy ring. There are several others, the report says, which are in influential positions to sway policy decisions and steal crucial information and critical research findings, who are on Chinese payroll. Some of them are working in the world’s top research labs and are being paid in millions to smuggle information to China.
Earlier this year, Charles Lieber, a professor at the Harvard University, was found by the US agencies of working closely with the Chinese. China had reportedly paid him $1 million. US officials also found two other Chinese agents who were illicitly funnelling information out of the United States, to China. Yanqing Ye, a researcher at the Boston University, was caught by the US agencies on the charges of espionage. It was later revealed that before being a researcher at Boston University, Yanqing was in the Chinese army.
Another cancer researcher, Zaosong Zheng, was arrested from the Boston airport while he trying to flee to China. When he was patted down, authorities found 21 biological samples in his bag. He was arrested at the Boston airport.
Furthermore, the report states that Chinese agents are masquerading as Confucian scholars in more than 500 universities. Even journalists are on the payroll of China and are offered sponsored trips or junkets to China. In return, the journalists have to whitewash China’s maltreatment of its Uyghur population and write editorials lauding Beijing.
In a survey carried out by the International Federation of Journalists, scribes from 58 countries were asked if they received overtures from China. The survey, as it turns out, revealed that in at least 29 of these countries, journalists had been on trips to China. Some of the respondents in the survey claimed that China has a visible presence in their national press coverage. 67 per cent of the respondents replied in the affirmative that they were approached by Chinese entities.
All these findings prove that China’s unconventional espionage activities are central to Chinese authoritarian leader Xi Jinping’s plan to dominate the world order. All countries carry out espionage activities to defend their interests, but China’s activities reveal that it is bent on ratcheting up its spy war. China is vigorously recruiting like never before, snooping, stealing secrets and research information on a scale that has never been witnessed before.
