FBI: China Has Been Exploiting US Visa System, Had Access to Extremely Sensitive Secrets
The recent busting of one of China’s alleged den of spies is only the latest in a series of worrying intelligence breaches by the communist superpower.
This most recent blow to the foreign espionage network came as the Chinese consulate in Houston was ordered closed by the United States government Tuesday, after diplomats there were accused of assisting spies.
China claims innocence, but smoke from consulate employees’ failed attempt at a discrete document purge was so thick that the local fire department responded.
Despite China’s fervent denials of any widespread espionage network, the Houston consulate appears to be only the tip of the iceberg.
FBI agents are also investigating a suspected Chinese military operative who is thought to have exploited our visa system to gain access to sensitive information.
Officials claim that Chinese national Juan Tang lied on a J-1 visa application in order to gain access to America.
Pictures of Tang showed the researcher in a military uniform of the People’s Liberation Army. A raid on her apartment revealed further affiliation with the PLA.
Now, the FBI believes she’s hiding in the Chinese consulate in San Francisco.
“[Tang’s] case is not an isolated one, but instead appears to be part of a program conducted by the PLA — and specifically, [China’s Air Force Military Medical University] or associated institutions — to send military scientists to the United States on false pretenses with false covers or false statements about their true employment,” U.S. Attorney David Anderson said in a memorandum of support dated Monday.
“There exists evidence in at least one of these cases of a military scientist copying or stealing information from American institutions at the direction of military superiors in China.”
China’s underhanded exploitation of our visa system is, by all appearances, only a part in the larger information war against the United States.
Cases of the communist nation’s devious tactics include widespread industrial espionage, which impacts massive corporations like General Electric Co., resulting in the product of Americans’ hard work being leaked to China.
The espionage campaign isn’t just being waged against the private sector, but against our own military as well.
In October of last year, the FBI arrested Chinese-born U.S. Navy Lt. Yan Fang over allegations the officer smuggled military hardware and flash drives containing unknown information to his homeland.
The Chinese advantage isn’t only in espionage, but inland as well. Chinese companies and individuals have virtually free reign to buy property in America, which leads to some suspicious purchases next to U.S. military bases.
Try property investment in the People’s Republic and you’ll soon run into a tangled bureaucracy seemingly built solely to keep non-Chinese people from becoming landholders.
If our leaders don’t tighten up our porous border and visa system to keep harmful foreign agents out, more of our most prized technology will continue to be delivered right to our adversaries’ hands.
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