China recently detained an alleged spy at the service of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Asian country’s Ministry of State Security announced on Friday.
The suspect, identified only by his last name Zeng, would have contacted an employee of the United States embassy in Italy while he was attending a university course in that country.
The American earned the trust of Zeng, born in 1971, by inviting him to dinners, trips and operas, and “instilled in him Western values”, reads the statement released by the ministry, through his official account on social networks. . 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 chance to move to the US with his family, in exchange for “relevant military information”.
Zeng “later signed an espionage agreement with the United States” and “received training before returning to China,” according to the ministry, since then maintaining various secret contacts with the CIA, to which he “supplied various information, in exchange for money.” . , read the same note.
Last July, China amended the Counter-Espionage Law to include “collaboration with espionage organizations and their agents” under the category of espionage.
The legislation now bans the transfer of any information related to national security and broadens the definition of espionage, as Chinese President Xi Jinping stresses the need to build a “new security architecture.”
Last week, China’s Ministry of State Security called for the mobilization of “the whole of society” to “prevent and combat espionage,” and announced measures to “strengthen national defense” against the “activities of foreign intelligence services “.
In May, Chinese police entered 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 sowed concern in the sector and among potential foreign investors, despite the fact that Beijing has defended that they were isolated actions.
Source: TSF
