Chinese penetration of Western countries has been going for a while. In the U.K., they are getting worried about it:
MPs and members of the House of Lords have been warned by MI5 that they face a significant risk of espionage from the Chinese state.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, has circulated a new “espionage alert” issued by the security services.
In a message to MPs, Hoyle said Chinese state actors were “relentless” in trying to “interfere with our processes and influence activity at parliament”.
This article, in the London Times, goes on to describe multiple aspects of the Chinese effort. The Chinese have set up fake headhunting agencies:
Jarvis told the Commons that intelligence agencies “have warned that China is attempting to recruit and cultivate individuals with access to sensitive information about parliament and the UK government”.
“It is not just parliamentarians who should be concerned by this. Parliamentary staff, economists, think tank employees, geopolitical consultants and government officials have all been targeted for their networks and access to politicians.
This is particularly interesting:
“I urge all parliamentarians […] to be wary that China has a low threshold for what information is considered to be of value, and will gather individual pieces of information to build a wider picture.”
I suspect that artificial intelligence is being brought to bear in that effort.
The article describes Chinese penetration of universities, among other institutions:
“There is value for the UK engagement with China on education, however, operating in today’s uncertain international context presents many challenges for our great universities.
“It is because of their excellence that states like China are attempting to influence their independent research and interfere with activity on campus.”
The Chinese government has become influential in American universities, mostly by buying their way in, I believe.
The British government is outlining various steps to counter this Chinese influence operation. My sense is that Chinese penetration of government and society is more advanced in the U.S. We know that the Chinese government has sent spies to work for members of Congress, and to seduce at least one of them as a girlfriend–the famous Fang Fang. Probably what we know about is the tip of the iceberg.
How effectively is our government working to counter the threat from China? Tom Cotton has sounded the alarm, but how many in Washington are paying attention? One problem is that the Democrats don’t have any enemies except President Trump. He is the only adversary they care about, with national security far down the line if it is even on the list at all.
