Straw Boats Borrowing Arrows: China’s Espionage Campaign

In Mao Zedong’s 1957 speech “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People,” delivered at the Zhongnanhai’s Huairen Hall during the 11th Session of the Supreme State Conference, the ruthless chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party defined his country’s enemies as “all those social forces and social groups which resist the socialist revolution and are hostile to or sabotage socialist construction.” This expansive definition recently came to mind when the British Crown Prosecution Service unexpectedly withdrew its charges against two British men accused of spying for the Chinese government, on the grounds that the Official Secrets Act only covers the passing of useful secrets to an “enemy” state. Since no government witness proved willing to affirm that China represented a clear and present threat to British national security, the case necessarily collapsed.
The Chinese Communist Party would never allow itself to be hamstrung in such a fashion. Its criteria for enemy status, provided by Chairman Mao, is rather more extensive, its punishments for espionage swifter and more severe. Earlier this year, when a former engineer at a Chinese research institute by the name of Liu (his precise identity and professional affiliations have been kept secret) was accused of selling classified material to foreign agents, the death penalty was promptly imposed. “Desperadoes who want to take shortcuts to heaven,” the Ministry of State Security announced in its typically bumptious manner, “will all suffer consequences.” The asymmetry at work here may speak well of Britain’s commitment to the rule of law, due process, and careful statutory construction, but it bodes rather ill for its future as a global power. (RELATED: Some Dare Call It Treason)
The Sceptered Isle now positively teems with Chinese spies and influence agents seeking to further the CCP’s political agenda.
His Majesty’s Government may view the People’s Republic of China as an economic ...