China has warned that foreign spy agencies are targeting its citizens working abroad in a series of “quite deceptive” campaigns to steal high-tech industrial secrets.
Foreign workers may be vulnerable to foreign espionage, especially when they are separated from friends and family and sent to a different country, the country's government has warned.
China's Ministry of State Security says foreign adversaries are targeting its overseas workers in a three-part campaign that began as a helpful friendship at first, then moves into an attempt to gain trust over dinners, conversations and establishing a deeper friendship.
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The ministry warned on social media that foreign workers “should be attentive to the motivations others may have when making friends, have a strong conscience about keeping secrets and resist temptations.”
Once friendship is secured, targets are threatened or tricked into selling state secrets to their so-called “friends,” and the ministry says these tactics have been used in a number of “classic examples.” In 2019, China sentenced a foreign worker to death for stealing and selling state secrets over several years.
China has been stepping up its involvement abroad as part of its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in which China seeks to rival the United States and establish new trade relationships in Asia, Africa and Europe.
Distributing warnings via social media has become standard practice for the Ministry of State Security, with warnings about consultants engaging in espionage, foreign students being targeted for handing over information, and regular reports of underwater spyware being spread. located in waters of which China claims ownership.
Through SCMP
