By Christopher Harper
For those of us who lived through the Cold War with the Soviet Union, the Chinese spy balloon seemed like déjà vu all over again. The incident seemed far more dangerous than President Biden and his administration believed it was.
Sure, a balloon isn’t a bomber. But past spy vs. spy endeavors have had near-disastrous consequences.
In May 1960, American pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down in his CIA spy plane over Russia. President Eisenhower thought the pilot had died and declared the mission was aimed at surveying weather. The aircraft had accidentally wandered off course.
The Russians quickly showed the spy plane and the pilot, embarrassing the Americans just before a critical summit with Russia. The incident seriously affected East-West relations, ultimately leading to the Berlin Wall and the Cuban missile crisis.
It’s unclear what will happen because of the Chinese balloon, but it’s unlikely to be anything good.
The Chinese have engaged in ongoing espionage in the United States, and little has been done to stop it. Now is the time to do so.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies has found 160 serious incidents of Chinese spying in the United States since 2000. See https://www.csis.org/programs/strategic-technologies-program/archives/survey-chinese-espionage-united-states-2000
U.S. companies have also filed more than 1,200 cases of intellectual property theft against Chinese companies and their agents.
The results of the investigation are rather chilling:
–42% of the spies were Chinese military or government employees.
–32% were private Chinese citizens.
–26% were non-Chinese, usually persons recruited by Chinese officials.
–34% of the incidents sought to acquire military technology.
The investigation also found that the Chinese have become far more aggressive in recent years. More than three-quarters of the espionage incidents happened between 2010 and 2021. Also, the number of hacking incidents has dramatically increased, particularly from Chinese government operations known as People’s Liberation Army Unit 61398 and APT4.
Moreover, the investigation found that various university professors had used their positions to obtain funding from the U.S. government and then provided the results to China in various scientific fields.
The balloon incident should underline the need for greater emphasis on battling Chinese espionage. If the Biden administration fails to stand up to China, the Beijing government and President Xi will only become more emboldened in their efforts.
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