ARTICLE: "Chinese Spy 'Slept' In U.S. For 2 Decades," by Joby Warrick and Carrie Johnson, Washington Post, 3 April 2008, p. A1.
Long sentence is justified. This guy sent over in 70s and did as instructed.
No surprise on effort: three kinds of friend/enemies spy on us today. First there are countries that anticipate future conflict, because they think that way or we do (China falls more into latter category, but some in the former too--meaning the PLA).
Then there are allies who don't trust us enough, like Israel, whose spies get nabbed every so often. Israel, BTW, passes a lot of nice stuff to China's military.
Then there's the rising powers who want to leapfrog where possible. China's found here too.
Do not, however, pretend we don't spy back.
I personally don't see China's build-up as something to oppose (not sure how we'd stop) but rather something to exploit, so I'd like to move beyond the need for such mutual spying, but no, I don't expect it to end anytime soon.
| Permalink |
Comments (3)
The US has taken the right position simply to ask for clarity. There are no gains in opposition.
Isn't military competition the natural state of affairs in peacetime for prosperous nations? The absence of war allows nations to build up military forces, this is historically accurate, the byproduct of longevity in peace. I see managing this natural state as the object of peacetime strategy.
Posted by Galrahn | April 17, 2008 4:13 PM
World’s second oldest profession ain’t going quietly into that dark and spooky night anytime soon. We spy, they spy, hell we spy on our own citizens. Sometimes justified, sometimes not.
Interesting note – Australia’s security organisation is currently hiring analysts, out of seven role descriptions counter espionage is listed second to last. Did GWOT suddenly mean that our security operators needed to stop looking for spys?
http://www.asio.gov.au/careers/ia/the_role.htm
Posted by David Sutton | April 17, 2008 9:08 PM
Paraphrasing former CIA analyst Larry Johnson, "there is no such thing as a friendly foreign intelligence service."
Posted by le0pard13 | April 19, 2008 5:56 PM