The top spy agency in China announced on Sunday that a Chinese national employed for a defence institution was being investigated for possible US spying and that his case had been sent to a Chengdu court in the southwest of the country for a trial.
This case is the most recent to highlight Beijing’s increased focus on national security, as well as its enlarged anti-espionage legislation and internal corruption crackdown.
A guy with the surname Hou, who worked at an unidentified defence institute, was sent as a visiting scholar to a U.S. university in 2013, according to a televised programme by China’s official broadcaster CCTV, where he was forced to divulge secrets belonging to the Chinese government.
In a statement posted on its WeChat social media account on Sunday, China’s Ministry of State Security stated that “espionage activities go hand in hand with deception, temptation, and conspiracy.”
Neither the statement nor the media article mentioned the university by name.
According to CCTV, Hou was introduced to the person who pretended to be a consultant firm employee by a professor in the United States, but who was actually an American “intelligence officer” using the company as a front.
As their friendship grew over the next few months, the intelligence officer asked Hou to join “his company” as a consultant, offering him a monthly salary of $600-$700 depending on how well he performed.
A few months later, the American made his actual objectives known and suggested a modification in the way Hou’s wife and son collaborated, while they were visiting the United States. According to CCTV, Hou accepted the conditions out of concern for the safety of his children and wife. According to the article, Hou would be required to divulge highly sensitive information in hour-long sessions over the course of many encounters in exchange for $1,000 in remuneration.
When Hou returned to China in 2014, the collaboration continued. According to CCTV, he would visit international conferences and interact with U.S. intelligence. According to the article, he also independently supplied intelligence data in the areas of national defence and the military sector. Hou was taken into custody in July 2021 following an inquiry by the Chinese authorities. He was allegedly accused of espionage.
The US is concerned about China’s counter-spying campaign after it detained and imprisoned scores of foreign and Chinese citizens in recent years on suspicion of espionage.
China’s intelligence service has released further information on a US citizen who was sentenced to life in prison for espionage earlier this year.
