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Immagine del redattoreNicola Iuvinale

Wall Street Journal: the scale of China's intelligence raids and espionage is unprecedented and Western countries are finding it difficult to defend themselves. Why?


The WSJ reported that Western governments believe China is conducting espionage on an unprecedented scale. Beijing mobilizes security agencies, private companies and civilians in an effort to secretly weaken rival countries while promoting China's economic interests. According to reports, almost every week Western intelligence agencies issue warnings about threats from China. However, Western intelligence agencies are unable to curb Beijing's activities and have publicly called on companies and individuals to be more vigilant when interacting with China. Calder Walton, a national security expert at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, says such appeals are in vain given China's inseparability from the global economy. Western governments "in many ways came to understand and accept these things only after they happened," he said. We believe it is quite clear that in many Western countries, especially European ones, economic interests are often subordinated to national security and the general interests of citizens. The Western political compromise with China is quite evident: for a handful of votes one can easily bow one's head before China. All this is contrary to the interests and national security of democratic countries. In December last year, the U.S. Congress banned the Defense Department from using any seaport in the world that uses China's "National Logistics Platform" cargo information system (LOGINK) to prevent the leak of classified information. The same complaint has been submitted by us at ExtremaRatio to the Italian intelligence services, particularly DIS, AISE and COPASIR, with no response nor has any public news about it leaked out.


by Nicola e Gabriele Iuvinale

According to reports, Western intelligence agencies are issuing warnings about threats from China almost every week. In September of this year alone, there were a series of incidents: the FBI said a Chinese government-linked company hacked 260,000 internet-connected devices, including cameras and routers, in the United States, Britain, France, Romania, and other countries.

A U.S. congressional investigation has found that Chinese cranes used at U.S. seaports contained technology that could be secretly controlled by Beijing and that Sun Wen, a former senior staffer for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, was a Chinese agent.

Western intelligence agencies are powerless to curb Beijing's activities and have publicly called on companies, politicians and others to be more vigilant when interacting with China. But Calder Walton, a national security expert at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, says such calls are futile given China's inseparability from the global economy. Western governments "in many ways have only come to understand and accept these things after they happened," he said.

China's government information office, the Ministry of National Security, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of National Defense did not comment on the report. Beijing has denied espionage allegations against Western countries and said China is often the target of foreign hacking and intelligence operations.

The FBI says China-backed hackers outnumber the entire FBI IT staff by at least 50 to 1. A European agency estimates that China's intelligence and security operations may involve as many as 600,000 people.

"China's hacking program is larger than that of all other major nations combined," FBI Director Chris Wray said earlier this year.


Such malicious activities are likely to intensify as China's economic growth slows and the increasingly authoritarian government of President Xi Jinping takes over. Officials say this will increase pressure on China's intelligence agencies to steal innovations to stimulate the economy and quell criticism at home and abroad. "This is about protecting the existing regime," said Nigel Inkster, a former director of operations for Britain's foreign intelligence agency MI6.

China's activities sometimes seem ridiculous and sometimes chilling. U.S. prosecutors said in September that five Chinese graduate students at the University of Michigan took pictures in the dead of night near a military vehicle used by the National Guard for a training exercise in August last year. The exercise also involved Taiwanese military personnel who the graduates say were stargazing.

Taiwanese troops have participated in U.S. militia exercises, and Chinese students have broken into the base to take photos. As China becomes more militarily assertive, its covert operations pose a greater threat. Western officials say Xi Jinping has ordered the People's Liberation Army to prepare to invade Taiwan by the end of 2027, which could trigger a conflict between the United States and China.

The FBI said earlier this year that China had hijacked hundreds of routers and used them to infiltrate US water and energy networks, raising concerns that Beijing was trying to take over US infrastructure before the US intervened in China's invasion of Taiwan.

In December last year, the US Congress banned the Department of Defense from using any seaport in the world that uses China's "National Logistics Platform" (LOGINK) cargo information system to prevent information leaks.

The same complaint was forwarded by us at ExtremaRatio to the Italian secret services, specifically DIS, AISE and COPASIR, without receiving a response.

Another factor hindering Western intelligence counterattacks is the difficulty of spying on Chinese intelligence. Chinese intelligence activities are highly decentralized and include numerous agencies and private companies, most of which operate autonomously and are therefore difficult to penetrate and their research methods would appear to be random.

European security officials say that Chinese students and visiting scientists are also one of Beijing's main channels for spying on Western intelligence.

Security officials used to keep an eye on Chinese researchers from the "Seven National Defense Groups", seven universities with close ties to the Chinese military, but recently spies posing as researchers have become increasingly adept at hiding their tracks. Some students initially enroll in language or literature courses and later move on to quantum computing or other sensitive fields. Britain's domestic intelligence agency MI5 said that since 2022, Chinese agents have contacted more than 20,000 people on the social media platform LinkedIn in an attempt to obtain sensitive information in the UK alone. MI5 has warned universities to be wary of working with Chinese-backed consultancies or universities to avoid the inadvertent leak of valuable intellectual property.

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