By: Philip Lenczycki, Daily Caller News Foundation
The Chinese government claims to have identified a CIA spy embedded within its government, Chinese state-run media reported Monday.
China’s top spy agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), announced it had identified “an official of a central government ministry” who’d provided the CIA with “a large amount of sensitive government information” in exchange for payment, the Chinese state-run media outlet Global Times reported. The announcement follows less than two weeks after the MSS claimed it had arrested a CIA spy who’d been collecting “sensitive military information” for the CIA in exchange for “spy funds.”
“Chinese citizens abroad should remain vigilant, resist enticements offered by suspicious individuals, and avoid succumbing to momentary gains that may lead to serious consequences, thus preventing themselves from falling into the abyss of criminal activities,” the MSS stated, according to Global Times.
The MSS claims that an individual named “Hao” allegedly met a U.S. Embassy officer named “Ted” while studying abroad in Japan and seeking to obtain a U.S. visa, Global Times reported.
The MSS claims that Ted allegedly struck up a friendship with Hao and bought him dinner and gifts, according to Global Times.
Ted also allegedly began paying Hao for helping him write papers, the state-run media outlet reported.
The MSS claims that Ted subsequently introduced Hao to a colleague named “Li Jun,” who later revealed that he was working for the CIA in Tokyo, according to Global Times.
Li Jun then allegedly recruited Hao into the CIA and persuaded the Chinese student to work in a “critical unit of the Chinese ministry” after returning to China, the state-run media outlet reported.
Hao allegedly complied with Li Jun’s requests, “signed an espionage agreement” and was trained by the CIA, according to Global Times.
Upon returning to China and beginning work with the unspecified Chinese ministry, Hao allegedly met with CIA personnel on multiple occasions who paid him for “sensitive government information,” according to the report.
After allegedly discovering Hao’s CIA-ties, the MSS announced that “investigations into the individuals implicated in the case have been initiated in accordance with the law,” Global Times reported.
Yet, it remains unclear if Chinese authorities have arrested Hao or what his whereabouts might be.
The MSS announcement shares several core claims with an MSS announcement from Aug. 11, in which the spy agency alleged it had taken “lawful coercive measures to eliminate the threat” of a CIA spy who’d been passing sensitive Chinese military information to the U.S. government.
Both MSS announcements assert that U.S. Embassy officials in foreign countries allegedly approached Chinese nationals studying overseas in order to persuade them to obtain sensitive Chinese government information.
The Chinese government enacted a new Counter-Espionage Law in July 2023 that “expands the definition of espionage from covering state secrets and intelligence to any documents, data, materials or items related to national security interests, without defining terms,” according to the U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI).
The MSS has since launched a Chinese social media account from which it announced that “all parts of society” must be mobilized for “secret work.”
The CIA and Chinese Embassy did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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