Chinese Intelligence Activity Abroad - Method of Operation

Method of Operation

It is generally believed that Chinese intelligence agencies operate differently from other espionage organizations by employing primarily academics or students who will be in their host country only a short time, rather than spending years cultivating a few high-level sources or double agents. Much information about the Chinese intelligence services comes from defectors, whom the PRC accuses of lying to promote an anti-PRC agenda. One known exception to this rule is the case of Katrina Leung, who was accused of starting an affair with an FBI agent to gain sensitive documents from him. A U.S. judge dismissed all charges against her due to prosecutorial misconduct.

The United States believes the Chinese military has been developing network technology in recent years in order to perform espionage on other nations. Several cases of computer intrusions suspected of Chinese involvement have been found in various countries including Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, India and the United States.

In 2009, Canadian researchers say they have found evidence that Chinese hackers had gained access to computers possessed by government and private organizations in 103 countries, although researchers say there is no conclusive evidence China's government was behind it. Beijing also denied involvement. The researchers said the computers penetrated include those of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exiles.

Ira Winkler, a former National Security Agency staff and a security consultant, said that Chinese intelligence operatives work by approaching ethnic Chinese by reminding them of "Chinese heritage, telling them they must help".

Read more about this topic:  Chinese Intelligence Activity Abroad

Famous quotes containing the words method of, method and/or operation:

    Women are denied masturbation even more severely than men and that’s another method of control—they’re not taught to please themselves.... Most women—it takes them a while to warm up to the “situation” but once they get into it, I’m sure they’re going to get just as hooked as—well, everyone I know is!
    Lydia Lunch (b. 1959)

    The method of painting is the natural growth out of a need. I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.... I can control the flow of paint: there is no accident, just as there is no beginning and no end.
    Jackson Pollock (1912–1956)

    You may read any quantity of books, and you may almost as ignorant as you were at starting, if you don’t have, at the back of your minds, the change for words in definite images which can only be acquired through the operation of your observing faculties on the phenomena of nature.
    Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)