The FBI and Chinese in the U.S.

After several years of assisting me on journeys far and wide in China, my office assistant in Beijing is about to head off for a master’s degree program in journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. She was accepted at many universities, including Columbia, Stanford and the University of Missouri, and chose Berkeley, a decision I heartily endorsed.

The only drawback to Berkeley, I told her, was that she’d be surrounded by Asia-Americans and Asian students like herself, and might not get the full experience of studying in a place with a larger cross-section of America.

In any case, I’d given some thought to this when she sent me today’s headlines from the Chinese newspapers and websites (I’m currently visiting our newsroom in Washington D.C.). Among the headlines was this from Sina.com: China expresses indignation over an advertisement looking for intelligence about China posted by FBI.

A quick search on the internet turns up a lot of interesting indications that the FBI indeed is boosting its hunt for spies within the United States, particularly on university campuses and in areas with lots of Chinese immigrants.

On July 4, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the FBI had placed three ads in Chinese-language papers in the Bay Area asking for information about Beijing-sponsored espionage in the United States. The ad says in part:

“We would like to talk to individuals who have information about any foreign intelligence service that would intend to harm our country. We especially welcome anyone who has information about the Chinese (government) or State Security.”

The Foreign Ministry in Beijing reacted sharply today:

“The contents of the advertisements of the United States are totally groundless,” spokesman Qin Gang said, noting the ministry’s “indignation and resolute opposition.”

Qin blamed the incident on a “handful of people” who “were attempting to incite fears about the 'China's threat' theory as Beijing's influence grew.”

Turns out that there’s more.

The FBI is visiting top universities in New England, including MIT, Boston College, and the University of Massachusetts, to warn top academics about the dangers of foreign spies and terrorists stealing sensitive academic research.

The feds are offering to brief faculty, students and staff on what it calls “espionage indicators” aimed at identifying foreign agents.

My personal impression is this: I went to Middlebury College in the summer of 2003 to begin Chinese language training before heading to China. The Middlebury program is widely considered to be one of the best such programs in the United States. For nine weeks, students speak nothing but Chinese. (As an aside, it’s a really, really fine program. I wish I could go back and drill down further.) I happened to live in a dormitory with lots of older students, like myself, and soon figured out that some were FBI counter-intelligence officers honing their Chinese. After some quiet conversations, a couple told me they were inundated with work. Beijing had a massive effort going in the United States, and it was what might be called “ant” intelligence. Many people picking up lots of little bits and pieces and taking it back to be put together at the mother nest.

Is it true? Who knows. Certainly there do seem to be a spate of arrests, and even convictions, in recent months.

What I do know is that having Chinese students, like my office assistant, study at U.S. universities, which are pretty vibrant places with lots of vigorous debate and discussion, is a pretty good thing. Even if there are eyes and ears there that are reporting to different masters.

Comments

[N T Balanarayan]

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[Ryan Kellett]

I am at Middlebury College Chinese Summmer Language School（中文學校）right now and there are a lot of us convinced that there are the various government agents among us. No one is quite sure who is who but it sure is a lot of fun guessing.

The CIA just held a recruitment meeting here too because Chinese is a "critical language."

[Mickey]

"...full experience of studying in a place with a larger cross-section of America."

Do you mean university with a white students majority? Berkeley is just as American as any other university in America.

What you view as a drawback may actually work to her advantage as she will not experience discrimination as much.

Do governments around the world also identify American students studying abroad as "spy" and "foreign agent"?

[ric]

stop being an assw*pe white male who thinks he KNOWS everything about a culture that is not his own

[Brian]

Hmm, I don't see the thrill in seeing the US government's spy recruitment efforts. To me these agents are just serving a master -- the state. Why is that interesting? I suppose from a certain perspective it can be reflective of the world today, but there is no romance in it. I am pretty convinced that the Epoch Times (Falun Gong's paper) is at least partly funded by the US government. It is curious that this little cold war goes on within an ethnic community in the US. Uncomfortable for Chinese and Chinese Americans, of course.

[Marvin L Foushee]

I was reading the Stanford Univerity Newspaper one day, and the story about the death of a Chinese student, May Zhou, kind of struck me as being strange. Her father created an Internet site that clearly stated that her daughter was murdered by the FBI and that her death was not a suicide. She may not have accepted the Dalai Lama as her athiest Buddhist savior, and this may have been the reason for her death, but when you end up in the trunk of your car at a planetarium miles from home and the FBI says that you died of an overdose of nasal spray, the cause of death looks pretty suspicious.

Go to Xiamen University to get a degree. It is safer than Berkley.

[Tony Vigil]

Whom It May Concern:

I too! Have personally seen the spying taking place, not so much in Canada as it is known to be as well, but in the lower USA. Specifically in, New Mexico my home state. I was born 50 miles from Los Alamos National Laboratory (nuclear facility).

It is a wonder how the Chinese have infiltrated our science labs, such as: LANL - Los Alamos National Laboratory, former run by the AEC. (they are not even natural born native Americans)!

I can attest to a personal incident, where one such person, while I was at Kinko's Reproduction (stationary store), located at: Academy & San Mateo Blvd's in Albuqueque, NM. And how a Chinese Person of Interest, which I still vividly remember, "stole my paperwork, which at that particular place, where some of my own personal papers, concerning "Automation Controls, PLCs, and other industrial computers used in manufacturing, lay on a table. He had slipped my paperwork away, while I was busy copying things, and doing some other errands. he slipped my important paperwork, below his "mess of things". But I caught the rascal!

My point is this. They (the Chinese Spys) have the resources we make available to them, such as freely going to Kinko's (reproduction services to the public) where anything can be reproduced, on the "hoof"! "On the fly"!

I can attest to much, much more, such as the case involving Wen Ho Lee, who also worked at the lab as well. Let me make it perfectly clear! Not all Chinese are doing this, but there are "some"! Spying and theivery!

It is exceedingly strange to say the least, when a scientist is asked about occurances and incidents at work - is asked, and cannot, will not "recall, divulge, remember, have a lapse of memory, what occurances have happened, when saving or transferring information - specifically with computers" Their minds go blank! As if that was highly possible, with such high I.Q.'s which they all possess, when they are hired to work in such laboratories as: Scandia National Labs. Los Alamos and Livermore National Labs.

I am a natural born American Citizen, I qualified for many jobs at the labs, but the USA. being what it truly is...I was not ever able to find work at anyone lab. Just other defense contrators, "you figure this out for yourself"! Who the U.S. hires, and who it does not. Everything is "up side down"!

Tony Vigil

Tony Vigil I&C Engineer
vigilaw@hotmail.com

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