Balloons, pirates and cameras: when the United States and its allies accuse China of spying
A US Navy photo shows US servicemen recovering debris from the Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina, February 5, 2023. via REUTERS - US NAVY PHOTO
Text by: Baptiste Condominas Follow
11 mins
The overflight of the United States last week by a Chinese balloon, suspected by Washington to be a spy device belonging to a "fleet", raises questions about Beijing's intelligence gathering methods.
The US administration regularly accuses China of spying on its territory or those of its allies using different strategies.
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If the balloon affair has caused renewed tension between the two giants, Beijing has been regularly singled out by American - and more widely Western - services in cases of alleged espionage in recent years.
Businesses in which digital is playing an increasingly central role.
Thus, a group of United States intelligence services estimated in 2022,
in an annual report,
that China represented “
the broadest, most active and persistent cyber espionage threat
” for the government and the private sector.
In 2021, the United States and its NATO allies directly accused China of carrying out a global campaign of cyber espionage.
At the same time, and more concretely, the US Department of Justice suspected four Chinese nationals - three security officials and a contracted hacker - of having targeted dozens of companies, universities and government agencies in the United States and abroad.
According to Westerners, Beijing also relies on Chinese citizens abroad for intelligence and theft of sensitive technologies.
One of the most publicized cases is that of engineer Ji Chaoqun, who arrived on American soil in 2013 on a student visa.
The latter was sentenced last month in the United States to eight years in prison, for having provided Chinese intelligence services with information on American scientists who could potentially be recruited as sources of information.
Last year, a US court also sentenced a Chinese intelligence officer to 20 years in prison for stealing technology from US and French aerospace companies.
Xu Yanjun was found guilty
of playing a leading role in a five-year Chinese state-backed scheme to steal trade secrets from GE Aviation and the French group Safran.
In 2020, Wei Sun, a naturalized Chinese engineer working in defense for the Raytheon group, was also sentenced to prison, after taking a company computer to China containing sensitive information about an American missile system. .
►
To read also: Commercial espionage: the heads of MI5 and the FBI warn against China
Clandestine "police stations"
Apart from collecting strategic intelligence, China has
clandestine "police stations"
in the United States and several European countries , claims the human rights organization Safeguard Defenders in a report published in September 2022. Undeclared, these structures are likely to monitor dissidents or put pressure on them, according to this Madrid-based organization.
Researcher Marc Julienne, head of China activities at the Asia Center of the French Institute for International Relations (Ifri), confirms that the objective of clandestine officials or civilians linked to the authorities who work for these pharmacies is to carry out "
intelligence within the diaspora and influence by capitalizing on these communities to advance the interests of the country
”, but also to monitor other diasporas, such as the Uyghurs, the Taiwanese or the Tibetans.
►
To read also: Illegal Chinese police stations abroad: new data from an NGO
A practice “
absolutely illegal
” under international law, and which, moreover, goes against the very cardinal principle of non-interference which China prides itself on.
In November, the Netherlands ordered China to close two "police stations" on its territory.
Although he denies his accusations, Beijing has closed two such structures in Prague, according to Czech authorities.
The Ball of Discord
Spotted on February 2 and shot down on February 4
, the balloon - or rather what's left of it - is currently in the hands of American authorities who are analyzing the debris.
This is to determine what equipment he was carrying, but also what type and amount of information he was able to collect.
Because if China speaks of a
"civilian aircraft used for research purposes, mainly meteorological"
, entered
"completely accidentally"
in American airspace, the United States denounces a surveillance balloon "
clearly made for 'observation for the purpose of espionage
', according to a senior American official.
Whether it is an aerostat with scientific objectives or a spy airship, the researcher Marc Julienne underlines that in all cases "
the fact that it enters the territory gives information: when and how the Americans spot, what reaction they will have,
etc.
Even if it is not a spy balloon, “
it therefore collects interesting data
”.
In this photo provided by the US Navy, sailors assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group 2 recover the surveillance balloon detected at high altitude off Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in the Atlantic Ocean on 5 February 2023. AFP - PETTY OFFICER 1ST CLASS TYLER TH
But "
a bundle of clues still suggests that it's more like espionage
," he points out.
And the first analyzes of the American services point in this direction.
According to the State Department
, the craft did indeed carry devices intended to intercept various types of communication.
And its manufacturer would be a company linked to the Chinese army.
On Wednesday February 8, Joe Biden's spokeswoman even accused Beijing of having a "
fleet of balloons
" on five continents.
And the American administration recalls that China is not at its first attempt: Beijing had sent three aircraft for brief incursions into the American sky during the presidency of Donald Trump, and already one at the start of Joe's mandate. Biden.
Video surveillance
The United States is not the only Western country to denounce such maneuvers.
On Thursday February 9, the Australian government announced that it would remove all Chinese-made surveillance cameras from its buildings to ensure that they are "
completely secure
".
At least 913 of these devices have been installed in more than 250 government establishments, according to data from opposition MP James Paterson, who claimed that these places were infested with "spyware
"
.
The cameras in question were produced by the companies Hikvision and Dahua, both of which are blacklisted in the United States.
In November last year, Washington
banned the import of equipment from these two companies
, citing "
unacceptable risk to national security
".
The Hikvision company, which notably manufactures video surveillance cameras, is one of the companies on Washington's blacklist.
AP - Mark Schiefelbein
In July 2022, British parliamentarians called on the UK government to ban the two manufacturers.
And in November, British authorities took the decision to ban the installation of Chinese-made security cameras on “
sensitive sites
”, specifying that “
no such equipment should be connected to the central networks of ministries
” .
.
Hikvision denied the charges and said its products "
comply with all applicable Australian laws and regulations and are subject to strict safety requirements
".
On Thursday, Beijing accused Canberra of "
misusing its national power to discriminate against and suppress Chinese companies
".
New technologies
The accusations against Hikvision and Dahua join those which also target the Huawei group, one of the world leaders in mobile telephony and advanced equipment for networks and 5G, also blacklisted by Washington.
At the end of November, the US Telecoms Regulator (FCC) banned telecommunications equipment and services provided by nearly half a dozen Chinese companies, including Huawei and ZTE.
The decree targets companies considered to pose a threat to the national security of the United States and concerns the sale of any new product on American soil, by no longer allowing the obtaining of marketing authorization.
At the end of January, the Biden administration struck again by ceasing to approve licenses allowing American companies to export goods to Huawei.
Without providing evidence, the United States says it fears that
the Chinese group's products will serve as a backdoor
to monitor communications and data traffic, which the company firmly denies.
The Chinese telecom giant Huawei has been in the sights of the American authorities since 2019, believing that its products are a risk to national security.
AFP/Archivos
Arguments also used against the TikTok application.
Some lawmakers fear that the parent company of the social network, the Chinese group ByteDance, could access the personal data of American users and ultimately transmit them to the Chinese authorities.
A concern shared by France since the Senate launched on February 9 a commission of inquiry into the functioning of the social network, which must relate to its use, its exploitation of data and its strategy of influence.
Race for innovation
But in the field of new technologies, it is difficult to say "
what is the responsibility of national security or strategic rivalry
" between Beijing and Washington, notes the head of China activities at the Asia Center of Ifri, Marc Julienne .
Because this specialist recalls that the two countries are engaged in a fierce race for technological innovation.
Xi Jinping's declared desire to hoist his country to first place among world powers in all areas by 2049
-
the year of the centenary of the Communist takeover - faces that of the American administration to "
keep the greatest head start
", particularly in tech, a sector at the heart of Chinese ambitions.
The researcher explains that Washington is trying to set up a "
glacis to hinder China's technological development
".
In addition to the measures taken against Huawei and other major Chinese companies, he recalls the drastic restrictions on the export
of advanced semiconductors
, in the name of
"national security"
, imposed in November 2022 by the United States.
Unprecedented measures which "
aim to block the entire Chinese innovation system
" and whose consequences - still hard to assess - could be heavy for Beijing.
So what is trade warfare or espionage?
“
There is a gray area between the two,
analyzes Marc Julienne.
For Americans, preventing the Chinese from advancing technologically is a matter of security.
A vagueness also maintained by the Chinese system, where the links between the government and private companies are sometimes difficult to determine as they can be intertwined in one way or another.
“
It is a legitimate concern, it is often hard to distinguish what is civilian and military, private and linked to the
Chinese state”, notes the Ifri researcher.
Diplomatic crisis and political battle
Despite this, the two administrations have shown a certain desire to ease tensions and resume dialogue since
the meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden in Bali
in November 2022. It was also expected that Secretary of State Antony Blinken would went to Beijing at the beginning of the year to confirm this trend.
A visit postponed in extremis following the balloon incident, which therefore caused a diplomatic crisis but also political turmoil within the country.
Republicans accuse Joe Biden of not having had a faster and firmer response.
The head of China activities at Ifri's Asia Center recalls that today, "
anything to do with Beijing is becoming politically toxic
" in the United States, leaving little room for nuanced or moderate discourse on the activities of the Asian giant.
Relations between the two countries have therefore probably not finished experiencing their share of turbulence, whether it is a question of “national security” or not.
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