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How China turns members of its diaspora into spies

economist.com

31–40 of 249 posts

Re: How China turns members of its diaspora into spies

#32

[flagged]

> China has been engaged in a massive military build-up for many years now - and there is on the face of it no reason for that at all, because China is threatened by precisely no-one.

Do you realize the US is in the same position? The US has no credible threats to its territory anywhere. However it has the most massive military in the world and it is spread to every single continent. I would suggest that's exactly the reason why the Chinese have a need for a military.

Re: How China turns members of its diaspora into spies

#33

[flagged]

Just curious, do you apply this same logic to US government and history? What kind of evils get prescribed to the so called democratic land of the free?

This is a total non sequitur. It's implying that you can't criticize ANY corrupt government without first criticizing all of them.

Re: How China turns members of its diaspora into spies

#34
post #3

There should be a substantial CIA effort to recruit at every US university with more than 2 Chinese nationals. Student loans forgiven and green cards for the family.

Chinese nationals who come to the US are often rich enough to not have any student debt.

Yeah, they pay in cash up front. I've seen sometimes physical bundles of bills.

Re: How China turns members of its diaspora into spies

#37
post #3

There should be a substantial CIA effort to recruit at every US university with more than 2 Chinese nationals. Student loans forgiven and green cards for the family.

About twenty-five years ago, two Chinese students at my university were killed for seemingly no reason. Whoever killed them didn't steal anything. They hadn't been in any known conflicts with others in the community. It seemed completely random. But it wasn't. Turned out the husband was the son of the governor of some rural province in China. The father got into some kind of conflict with rivals, so they sent someone…

i could not find a source for this anywhere on the internet after trying multiple queries.

Re: How China turns members of its diaspora into spies

#38
post #4

Soon enough anything that is even remotely a security threat (pretty much any non-trivial app) will require clearance and in office work. The North Korean hacks into several companies are an example of how bad it is now, add in some good deep fake technology and soon you will not be able to distinguish who is actually working for your company.

Hiring and administrative machinery will therefore obviously be the target for an intelligent adversary, which we should presume we are facing.

I think anybody (especially a private employer, but really anyone) hiring somebody from an adversary country who thinks they can conduct an effective background investigation is fooling themselves. There's not really any avenue of investigation (other than vetting via your native intelligence service) that doesn't lead back to the foreign government, or an agency they control.

Re: How China turns members of its diaspora into spies

#39
post #3

There should be a substantial CIA effort to recruit at every US university with more than 2 Chinese nationals. Student loans forgiven and green cards for the family.

About twenty-five years ago, two Chinese students at my university were killed for seemingly no reason. Whoever killed them didn't steal anything. They hadn't been in any known conflicts with others in the community. It seemed completely random. But it wasn't. Turned out the husband was the son of the governor of some rural province in China. The father got into some kind of conflict with rivals, so they sent someone…

can you link any source about this happening? seems like it would be high-profile and documented but can't find any reference to this event so i kinda think you made it up if i'm being honest
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