China says it has apprehended an alleged CIA spy

China recently detained an alleged spy working for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Asian country’s state security ministry said Friday.

The suspect, identified only by his surname Zeng, allegedly contacted an employee of the US embassy in Italy while attending university in that country.

The American won the trust of Zeng, born in 1971, by inviting him to dinners, outings and operas, and “teaching him Western values,” reads the ministry’s statement through his official account on the network. Wechat.

As a result, Zeng “began to doubt his political position”.

The US official then allegedly revealed to Zeng his identity as a CIA agent in Rome and offered him a large sum of money and the opportunity to move to the United States with his family in exchange for “relevant military information”.

Zeng then “signed an espionage agreement with the United States” and “received training before returning to China,” the ministry said. Since then, he maintained several secret contacts with the CIA, to whom he “provided various information in exchange for money,” the same note reads.

Last July, China amended the counterintelligence law to include “cooperation with espionage organizations and their agents” in the espionage category.

The legislation now bans the transfer of information related to national security and broadens the definition of espionage as Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasizes the need to build a “new security architecture”.

Last week, China’s Ministry of State Security called for the mobilization of “the whole society” to “prevent and combat espionage”, and announced measures to “strengthen national defense” against “foreign intelligence activities”.

In May, Chinese police raided the offices of two consulting firms, Bain & Co. and Capvision, and a due diligence firm, Mintz Group. Authorities offered no explanation, saying only that foreign companies are required to comply with the law.

These investigations raised concerns in the industry and among potential foreign investors, despite Beijing’s defense that they were isolated actions.