The Peoples Republic of China Use of Espionage against the US - Term Paper Example

Running head: China and U.S. The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) use of espionage against the US Introduction United s became the only superpower in the world at present after the destruction of former Soviet Union. There is not much resistance for US at present and many political experts are of the opinion that the current Iraq war and Afghan war are as result of the destruction of former Soviet Union which gave America the licence to attack other countries at their own will. On the other hand, China is progressing rapidly at present and many people believe that China will become a superpower in near future itself and will be able to question the domination of America on global matters. Many reports have shown that china has already started to use espionage against the US. Pei & Lee, (n. d) has mentioned that a series of unofficial exchange visits between US nuclear weapons experts and their People’s Republic of China (PRC) counterparts started from 1978 onwards (Pei & Lee, n. d, p.1). The above information is a clear indication that both China and America have their own reservations against each other. The major security concern for US in the current decade is from China. Chinese technology is capable of penetrating the barriers constructed by the US for the protection of its secret weapons and technologies. There are many reports in which people believe that China is using espionage against the US. John Diamond, on 5/17/2006 written on USA TODAY that China is running aggressive and wide-ranging espionage operations aimed at stealing U.S. weapons technology that could be useful against U.S. forces, according to the nations top spy-catchers. Moreover, the FBI has arrested 25 Chinese nationals or Chinese Americans in cases involving the targeting of U.S. technology in the past two years (Diamond, 2006). This paper briefly explains the Chinese use of espionage against the US. Chinese use of espionage against the US Pei & Lee, (n. d) has reported that On 26 March 1998, Dr. Peter S. Lee, the nuclear physicist convicted of two felony counts including passing classified national defence information to PRC representatives, was sentenced to spend one year in a community corrections facility. Lee admitted under a plea bargain agreement on 7 December 1997 that he passed classified defence secrets to the Chinese Government in 1985 while working as a research physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (Pei & Lee, n. d, p.3). Lee was not an American by birth. He was born in Taiwan and later migrated to America and acquired Chinese citizenship. In America, many people of overseas origin are working in critical sectors including defense and security. This community was forced to migrate to US not because of their love towards US, but because of the increased opportunities and benefits they were able to get in US. Such people can misuse their responsibilities any time and China knows this factor very well. They know that it is difficult for them to canvas a true American for spying purpose. At the same time it is easy for them to brain wash the expatriate community settled in America for executing their missions. Being secular democratic state, America offers no restrictions or discrimination to any of the expatriate community working in America. The election of the current President Barak Obama underlines the above argument. Globalization has many advantages and disadvantages. One of the major disadvantages of globalization is the threat to internal security while exchanging the workforce between countries as part of globalization. Pei & Lee,(n. d) has mentioned that many people of Chinese origin are at present working or visiting in US, most of whom, come to pursue lawful objectives (Pei & Lee, n. d, p.4). Being a secular democratic state which respects human rights, America accommodates all people from all over the world who visits America legally. Moreover, in the name of trade and cultural integration many Chinese people are at present working in America. Many of them are working in America as scientists, students, business people, or bureaucrats, in addition to professional civilian and military intelligence operations. It is easy for them to engage in spying like activities. China on the other hand, has not opened up its critical sectors to foreigners as part of their globalization or economic reformation policies. In other words, China is playing the cards very well whereas same thing cannot be said about the US. The following figures will give a rough idea about the increased presence of Chinese in US; 27000 PRC delegations visit US every year. 20000 legal immigrants migrate to US every year 2750 commercial officers established large physical presence in US. The Chinese student community in US is around 100000 now. (IOSS Intelligence threat handbook, n. d, p.17) The visiting Chinese delegations normally approach the Chinese embassy in US in order to identify the critical companies in US to gather information. In other words, the intelligence gathering is an open strategy on which the US has so far failed to impose any restrictions. These Chinese delegates are smarter in forcing the American experts to disclose the secrets in an unofficial manner. They will use all the tactics to get the information from their Chinese counterparts and these Chinese delegates are properly trained for this purpose. China has already achieved breakthroughs in the development of Biological Warfare, Space Technology, and Military Information Technology, Laser Weapons, Automation Technology, Nuclear Weapons and Exotic Materials (Pei & Lee, n. d, p.6). At the same time they know that it is important for them to know more about what is going on in other countries like US, India, UK etc. For that purpose China deliberately sends missionaries in the form of students, scientists, researchers, and other visitors to the West to gather vital information. These people have put on the labels of students or scholars externally, but their real intention and purpose might be something else. It is difficult for America to enforce restrictions on Chinese students or professors who is working in America because of their declared human right policies. On the other hand, China doesn’t have such worries. They never respected human rights and have imposed severe restrictions on media and internet in China. It is difficult for a foreigner to engage in any type of activities against the interests of China while working or studying in China. China’s strategies in stealing US technologies are mainly based on the ethnic Chinese who is staying in United States. The Chinese authorities will "put out a shopping list" of weapons and components like night-vision gear, radar-evading and radar- and communications-jamming equipment, missile-guidance systems and torpedoes etc, it is seeking to arms dealers and middlemen. These middlemen, often ethnic Chinese, operate out of shell companies in the USA will execute the Chinese plans with utmost perfection (Diamond, 2006). During the cold war period, America has assisted China in many ways to develop critical technologies. Moreover, China has stolen many technologies from America. America’s earlier focus was on Soviet Union and they neglected China. But the destruction of Soviet Union and the rise of China have made the US aware of the negative impacts of their earlier policies. China has realized that it was difficult for them to develop to the desired level through indigenous technologies alone. This self realization forced them to steal technologies from America like countries using any means. Pei & Lee, have also mentioned that many PRC scientists were educated in the United States and retain valuable contacts in the US research and business community who can be exploited for technology transfer (Pei & Lee, n. d, p.10) China has seven intelligence services out of which three; Ministry of State Security (MSS), Military Intelligence Department (MID) and the Liaison Office of the General Political Department (LO/GPD) are focusing purely on US (IOSS Intelligence threat handbook, n. d, p.19). These departments are evaluating the intelligence they collected from different channels and advice the Chinese administration for formulating policies and strategies based on that. The article Ministry of State Security (MSS), (2007) has mentioned the functioning of MSS. The Ministry of State Security (MSS), the major Chinese Governments intelligence agency which is responsible for the management of foreign intelligence and counterintelligence operations will assign duties to the Chinese agents in America. These agents are generally assigned to overseas postings for terms of six years, 10 years, or long-term residence, depending on the nature of the job or on performance (Ministry of State Security (MSS), 2007) The PRC’s intelligence philosophy is to recruit agents before there is a need and recruit as many as possible (IOSS Intelligence threat handbook, n. d, p.20). China is thinks faster than the Americans. They anticipate future needs and threats well before and based on that they will start to gather intelligence or information. By the time, the US was able to identify the dangers in allowing China to gather such information; Chinese intelligence might have collected ample information from the US. Most of the information collected in such ways may not seem to be volatile at a glance. But only when analyzing it deeply, the dangers can be indentified. For example, as mentioned earlier US allow Chinese delegations to visit big companies in US. These delegations on the other hand collect information about the functioning of these organizations and will use it in a more useful manner in Chinese conditions. Thus they will be able to compete with the American products in global market. Frontline dated 15 January 2004 has reported an incident which can be cited as the example of superior performances of Chinese intelligence compared to that of the United States’. In 1991, the FBI has assigned a person called Cleveland to travel to China fro some secret missions. But the Chinese agents got this news very early and followed him and arrested him. When Cleveland returned to the United States, he was given a wiretap audio recording made before his trip to China by the Chinese agents. On this tape a woman with the code name "Luo" talks to an agent code named "Mao" and gives the details of Clevelands upcoming trip. The womans voice was well known to Cleveland. It was one of the FBIs prized assets -- "Parlor Maid." (Frontline, Jan 15, 2004) KNIGHT, (2004) has mentioned another example to show the Chinese supremacy in stealing American technology. The House Select Committee on U.S. Nuclear Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the Peoples Republic of China, chaired by Christopher Cox (R-CA), found that the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) developed a number of key warheads based on U.S. designs, but failed to establish that this information had come through espionage. Still, the issue of Chinese spying simmered, and finally reached a climactic point with the arrest of Wen Ho Lee, a computer scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, in 1999 (KNIGHT, 2004) Gao Zhan, a celebrated University professor and a human activist in America is today in U.S. custody, convicted of selling sensitive U.S. technology to China — microprocessors that could be used in missile (Myers, 2006). It is difficult for US to segregate between the goods and evils among the Chinese community staying in America. The declared principles and policies of some of the prominent scholars who are settled in America is just for mocking the Americans. These people have hidden agendas and missions in their stay in America and they will never give up their nationalism in favour of anything else which is evident from the above example. Whenever United States hear some anti-China declarations from a Chinese person, they will consider it as the outbursts of suppressed Chinese population. Most of these declarations were intended to gain confidence of the US authorities which the United States failed to recognise. Americans should realize that all that glitters are not gold. Shaun Tandon (AFP) (2009) has mentioned that China has already given new face to the espionage by using cyber attacks (Tandon 2009). Cyber attacks are the new way of causing problems to enemy countries. The major advantage of cyber attacks is that it is difficult to identify from which source the attacks come from. China already acquired some superior internet technologies which can cause headaches to US. One of the interesting features about cyber attacks is that most of the cyber attacks are not government sponsored. Many patriotic Chinese people are also engaged in attacking the core technological areas of United States using internet. Claburn (2007) has written on InformationWeek November 19, 2007 that Chinese espionage activities in the United States are so extensive that they comprise the single greatest risk to the security of American technologies (Claburn, 2007). United States is in a dilemma in defining its relationships with China. Many US companies are already working in China and it is not wise for America to take stern actions against China. At one side they need the support of China on economic activities and international matters, at the same time they cannot keep a blind eye towards the espionage and the human right violations in China. President Obama has recently met Dalai Lama even amidst stiff protests from Chinese authorities. Another big headache for United States is not from the Chinese spies, but from the American technology companies itself. The greedy American companies have transferred the technology needed for the China to use in censorship and propaganda systems. These companies are indirectly assisting China in their mission to achieve superior US technologies which they may utilize against US in future. US officials are currently investigating more than 400 illegal exports to China from America (Myers, 2006). These exports were suspected to be involved many types of equipments related to core technological areas. The US intelligence agencies were surprised to see that even amidst of tight security measures after the 9/11, Chinese spies were able to accomplish such a mission. Conclusions China seems to be the number one threat for United States in future. As per the political experts China’s economy will surpass U.S economy within a decade. American economy is currently on the verge of destruction because of global financial crisis and war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq. China on the other hand doesn’t have such worries. They are not facing many problems, but creating problems to others. China is currently engaged in doing everything possible to make the American economy weaker. They are stealing technology from America with the help of ethnic Chinese who are stationed in America in the form of students, professors, scientists and business men. Most of this Chinese population in America seems to be serious criticizers of Chinese socialist rule. But their declarations lie on paper alone. In their deeper minds, they are keeping a strong feeling of nationalism and engaged in helping the Chinese intelligence agencies by collecting and transferring vital information from America to China. America should take necessary steps to counter the Chinese threats. It is impossible for America to keep two legs in two boats. They should decide how long they can allow China to steal their technologies and give opportunities to China to use it against them itself. America should restrict the Chinese immigration and should keep a vigilant eye on ethnic Chinese staying in America. References 1. Claburn Thomas, Chinese Espionage Cited As Top Risk To U.S. Technology Industry InformationWeek November 19, 2007, Retrieved on 1 March 2010 from http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/government/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=203103255 2. Diamond, John (2006) China broadens espionage operations, USA TODAY5/17/2006, Retrieved on 1 March 2010 from http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-17-china-espionage_x.htm 3. Frontline (15 Jan 2004)From China With Love, Retrieved on 1 March 2010 from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/spy/ 4. IOSS Intelligence threat handbook (n. d), Foreign Espionage, 5. KNIGHT JUDSON, (2004), Encyclopedia entry: Chinese Espionage Against the United States, Retrieved on 1 March 2010 from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3403300137.html 6. Myers Lisa, (2006), Worries about Chinese espionage: Concern focuses on non-traditional agents like students, businessmen, Retrieved on 1 March 2010 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15820017/from/ET/ 7. Ministry of State Security (MSS) (2007), GlobalSecurity.org, Retrieved on 1 March 2010 from http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/world/china/mss.htm 8. Pei Huang Dao & Lee Peter H.(n. d), A Counterintelligence Reader, Volume 4 Chapter 1, Retrieved on 1 March 2010 from www.fas.org/irp/ops/ci/docs/ci4/ch1.pdf 9. Tandon Shaun (AFP) (2009), China ramps up espionage against US: study, Retrieved on 1 March 2010 from http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ihohq4QxuZLBXKBlFfbEuHs8_NKA Read More