Recent Incidents Intensify Worries of Chinese Espionage in the United States

[Woodmonkey]

Recent Incidents Intensify Worries of Chinese Espionage in the United States


Recent revelations that China-based hackers may have penetrated U.S. computer networks -- including those operated by the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security as well as by major U.S. defense firms -- has heightened concerns about Chinese spying in the United States. Computer experts believe that the extensive scale of the information operations means they probably involved, to some degree, the Chinese military or intelligence services.

Although U.S. authorities remain concerned by the espionage operations conducted in the United States by Russia, Iran, and Cuba, they consider Chinese spying the most serious in terms of size. The sheer number of people of Chinese origin in the United States -- including immigrants, tourists, and students -- gives Chinese intelligence collectors tremendous opportunities to gather information within the United States.

When testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in July 2007, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III called Chinese intelligence activities a "substantial concern" because "China is stealing our secrets in an effort to leap ahead in terms of its military technology, but also the economic capability of China." The following month, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell warned that Chinese and Russian espionage activities on U.S. territory had returned to Cold War levels. Joel Brenner, national counterintelligence executive, has characterized the Chinese espionage effort in the United States as "a full-court press."

The Chinese still actively seek U.S. defense technologies. In October 2007, a federal grand jury in California charged a Chinese woman living in Connecticut with seeking to purchase small sensors used to measure the force of explosions, including those involving nuclear weapons, and ship them back to an unidentified Chinese buyer. Julie Myers, an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, said that the "accelerometers are a designated defense article frequently used in missiles, 'smart bombs' and other major weapons systems and in the wrong hands, could prove catastrophic."

According to Bruce Carlson of the FBI's counterintelligence division, the Chinese are also exceptionally active in the realm of economic espionage. He estimates that approximately one-third of the bureau's investigations in this area involve Chinese government agencies, research institutes, or businesses. The reversal of the traditional civil-military technological spin-off process in recent decades -- with civilian rather than military scientists and engineers leading development of many militarily relevant technologies -- has also increased the attractiveness of commercial espionage for the Chinese armed forces, whose defense industries still lag behind that of the United States and other NATO countries.

Although some might suppose that China's growing economic prowess would reduce the country's reliance on foreign commercial technologies, the Chinese government has apparently decided to reinvest some of its new revenue into bolstering its international espionage capabilities, including by acquiring new human intelligence assets within the United States. At the end of August, the Chinese government selected a new Minister of State Security, Geng Huichang, who is considered an expert on economic espionage. Observers consider his appointment an indication of the value the Chinese now attribute to commercial intelligence.

The FBI is the lead U.S. government agency responsible for countering Chinese espionage within the United States. In recent years, the agency's field offices have made it a priority to assist private sector companies in their local jurisdictions defend themselves against economic espionage, which typically involves their own employers and others with inside knowledge of the firms' operations. The Chinese government has proved skilled at targeting Chinese-American workers in key positions who have personal ties or other allegiances to the mainland. It can also use its growing computer hacking skills to acquire information from unclassified email messages and other weakly protected data sources.

Since 2001, the FBI has more than doubled the number of agents it assigns to China-related counterintelligence missions within the United States. The bureau has also sought the assistance of the Chinese-American community, through newspapers advertisements and other outreach efforts, in identifying suspicious activities. Yet, the U.S. government finds it difficult to defend against China's "vacuum sweeper" approach. Chinese agents collect numerous pieces of data that, while individually harmless, could generate important insights after the dots have been connected.

Furthermore, even when they have been successful at detecting probable Chinese economic espionage -- defined as stealing trade secrets to benefit a foreign government according to the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 -- U.S. authorities have found it difficult to win these trials in court. These cases are hard to prove given the intangible intellectual property information often at issue and the ease of distribution through the Internet.

In addition, government prosecutors are reluctant to make classified information public or reveal sources and methods, which could facilitate future Chinese intelligence operations. Instead, they often merely charge suspected Chinese agents with violating U.S. export laws or their company's terms of employment. Even if the defendants are found guilty, the penalties for violating these laws are much less than for spying.

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