Is China spying on the West more? This is what an article from Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Monday, October 14, reporting facts described by several Western governments as unprecedented. According to the American newspaper, in recent years, Beijing has mobilized security agencies, private companies and Chinese civilians in large numbers for the offensive “with the aim of weakening rival states and strengthening the country’s economy” .
As the business daily points out, rarely a week goes by without an alert from a Western intelligence agency on the threat posed by China. Just last month, the FBI said a state-linked Chinese company had hacked 260,000 internet-connected devices, including cameras and routers, in the United States and Britain. , in France, Romania and elsewhere. In early September, Linda Sun, a former top aide to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, was also arrested, accused of being an agent of the People’s Republic of China, as reported by the agency AP.
Espionage and influence operations
But these covert Chinese operations on American soil would not always be proven espionage according to Matthew Brazil, a longtime expert on Chinese intelligence and senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation. Asked by The New York Sun, he explained that Linda Sun was accused of activities “that resemble those of an agent of influence more than those of an intelligence agent.” And for good reason: the accusations against Linda Sun include, among other things, having kept Taiwanese officials away from events in New York State and having diverted the attention of the state government” towards activities and events of the People’s Republic of China.
Several suspected spies were also recently arrested on the Old Continent. In Germany, a Chinese national was arrested in Leipzig on October 1, accused of having transmitted information on the transport of military equipment to another suspected Chinese agent, reports the website of the Deutsche Welle. France would also have been the target of intensive espionage, as reported in February by a analysis from the Institute of International Relations (Iris). Paul Charon, director of the Intelligence, anticipation and hybrid threats field of the Strategic Research Institute of the Military School, also mentioned this to L’Express, reporting that France is more affected by the scientific espionage of the from China.
A hacking program bigger than the rest
According to the FBI, hackers supported by China outnumber its cybersecurity personnel at least fifty times more. A European agency estimates to the WSJ that China’s intelligence gathering and security operations could number up to 600,000 personnel. As FBI Director Christopher Wray noted some time ago: “China’s hacking program is larger than that of all other major countries combined.”
A report published in 2021 from Center for Strategic and International Studies had identified 160 incidents of Chinese espionage against the United States since 2000, with a sharp increase in activity after 2010. Relying on open source data, the report likely underestimates the true number of cases, says The New York Sun. According to the New York daily, the FBI has thousands of open investigations into Chinese intelligence services in each of its 56 national field offices. In 2021, the bureau revealed that it was opening at least two China-related investigations daily.
However, faced with established Chinese espionage, the West’s response seems delicate. Unlike autocracies like Iran or Russia, trade with China has fueled the West’s economic growth for decades, which is necessary for its long-term security. Most countries simply cannot afford to impose sanctions on China and expel its diplomats. “China is different,” admitted Ken McCallum, head of MI5, the British domestic intelligence agency. Wall Street Journal.
After a succession of arrests of suspected Chinese spies in 2024, in the West, the director of the powerful British communications interception agency (Government Communications Headquarters), estimated that the fight against Chinese espionage constituted a “historic challenge “, reports the BBC. An increasingly pressing challenge that Western authorities have struggled to take into consideration until now.