US citizens find themselves targeted by Beijing as the West warns of China’s escalating espionage efforts
Arthur Liu, the father of Olympic skater Alyssa Liu and a veteran California dissident, was not surprised when she got a call from the FBI.
“I was told that the Chinese government sent spies to the San Francisco Bay Area to get information about my and my daughter’s passport,” the Chinese man, an activist against the Beijing government, told the BBC.
“I can’t say I was shocked, but I thought, ‘Wow, they’re taking this too seriously.
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suspicious search
At first, Liu didn’t connect the dots after receiving a “suspicious” call from a man claiming to be from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. In the interview, he said he was doing a “prep review” for his trip to the Winter Olympics in February 2022.
“I didn’t really realize it could be someone who wasn’t from the Olympic Committee,” Liu said. “I just decided to do the right thing and not provide any information. We don’t normally send our passports like that.”
US officials believe the voice on the other end of the line is Anthony Ziburis, a former prison guard and Florida bodyguard.
His job was to spy and discredit Chinese dissidents for Beijing’s intelligence services.
Among the dissidents spied on are two US citizens, Liu and Yan Xiong, alleged US Army chaplains and congressional candidates who participated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
In March, Ziburis was accused by the US Department of Justice of spying on behalf of the Chinese government. But he is far from the only one.
So far in 2022, US agents have accused at least 12 people, including several US citizens, of harassing and spying for China.
MI5 and the FBI Alert
On July 8, two more people were accused of participating in the same plot targeting Liu.
Liu’s trial comes at a tense time in both the US and the UK as China’s espionage activities around the world increase.
In an unprecedented public appearance at the MI5 (British domestic intelligence service) complex in London last week, leaders of the US and UK security services warned of a vast espionage and hacking program that could be greater than any program developed by China and managed by other countries. developed countries unite.
These plans are believed to be part of a larger, growing and multifaceted effort to give China an edge over its rivals and to silence or suppress threats to the Chinese Communist Party government.
The strategy includes all kinds of tactics, from using hackers to sending spies to victims’ doors.
China’s “five poisons”
Former US intelligence agents say the most likely targets are people with links to what the Chinese government describes as the “five poisons” that threaten it.
These include: Tibetan and Uyghur separatists (mostly Muslims living in northwest China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region), the Falung Gong spiritual movement, independence activists in Taiwan, and members of the pro-democracy movement in China, as in Liu. .
Worryingly, these efforts are expected to escalate as China-US relations worsen. And even American citizens should not be pardoned.
For Liu, who fled China via Hong Kong after the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, the possibility of surveillance was always present.
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A previous attempt ended when he inadvertently befriended a spy candidate. He was a student introduced to him by someone from the local Chinese diaspora network he helped find housing in the US.
“A year or two later he told me he was asked to spy on me. It was a condition for him to come. [para os Estados Unidos]”, said Liu. “But then he stopped doing that.”
Human and computer espionage
Spying on Chinese citizens living abroad can take many forms, from attempts to hack their email and devices, to embedding human agents in their social circles or expatriate organizations.
Electronic methods are often used to “facilitate” human espionage.
“You can spy on someone online and get an idea of their connections,” said Christopher Johnson, a former China analyst at the CIA. “Then maybe you get close to these people. One thing leads to another.”
Johnson added that Beijing attacks dissidents like Liu because it believes they are part of a “global narrative war” between China and the West.
He said those who spoke out against the regime could undermine China’s efforts to positively project itself to the rest of the world.
This discussion “has gained more importance in the last few years,” he said.
one side of the story
“They use the outdated Marxist term ‘power of speech’. It’s about the idea that China should tell its story with their own propaganda.”
The Chinese government did not respond to a request for comment on the report.
When Ziburis was indicted in March, Beijing Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian accused the United States of “insulting” China.
However, current and former US intelligence officials have repeatedly warned of a massive Chinese espionage campaign on American soil.
FBI Director John Wray said in a speech earlier this year that China’s spy operations in the US are “arrogant” than ever before.
According to Christopher Johnson, this fact is especially true because the Joe Biden government uses the rivalry between the US and China as part of the global struggle between democracies and autocracies.
one case in 12 hours
According to the FBI, the agency files a new counterintelligence case against China every 12 hours. By February, more than 2,000 cases had been initiated.
Despite this, Johnson described US efforts to stop Chinese espionage as “discouraging”.
“They’re willing to try a lot more than us to stop them,” he said.
The FBI estimates there are “hundreds” of dissidents in the US that it hopes to target as part of China’s increasingly aggressive campaign of personal and political retaliation.
“Many of the targets are permanent residents or naturalized citizens, persons with substantial rights and protections under US law,” said Director Wray.
“I do not care”
Liu, on the other hand, said he did not believe his efforts to spy on him would stop.
However, the most recent attempt had an additional complication.
At the time of the FBI call, his daughter, Alyssa Liu, would likely travel to Beijing. The skater made posts on her social media criticizing China’s treatment of the Uyghur ethnic minority.
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Liu admitted that he was “extremely concerned” for her safety, but chose not to tell her about his espionage attempts at the time.
“I didn’t want him to go to China with a heavy load on his shoulders,” said the father. “I wanted him to go and enjoy the Olympic experience,” he said.
A year later, he says he wouldn’t be surprised if the FBI gets in touch again, although he hopes to “not have to do this again.”
“I learned to act like a normal person. [o governo chinês] They can do whatever they want, I can’t stop them. I don’t care,” he said.
“I will continue to speak out against certain behaviors and any human rights violations. Nothing can stop me from doing that.”
source: Noticias
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