In a risky quest for secrets, the United States and China expand their espionage operations globally

As the Chinese spy balloon drifted over the continental United States in February, American intelligence agencies learned that Chinese President Xi Jinping had become furious with top Chinese military generals.
Spy agencies had been trying to understand what Mr Xi knew and what action he would take when the balloon, originally intended for US military bases of Guam and Hawaii, had deviated from its trajectory.
Mr. Xi was not opposed to risky espionage operations against the United States, but American intelligence agencies concluded that the People's Liberation Army kept Mr. Xi in the dark until the balloon flew over the United States.
US officials would not discuss how spy agencies gleaned the information. But in details reported here for the first time, they found that when Mr. Xi learned of the ball's trajectory and realized it was derailing planned negotiations with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, he reprimanded senior generals for not telling him the balloon had gone astray, according to U.S. officials briefed on the intelligence.
The episode highlighted the growing and highly secretive spy-on-spy competition between the United States and China. The balloon crisis, a small part of a much larger Chinese espionage effort, reflects a brazen new aggressiveness by Beijing in gathering intelligence on the United States as well as Washington's growing capabilities to collect its own information on China. ="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">For Washington, the espionage efforts are a critical part of President Biden's strategy to curb China's military and technological rise, consistent with his thinking that the country represents the most great long-term challenge for American power. .
For Beijing, the new tolerance for bold actions by Chinese spy agencies is driven by Mr Xi, who has led his army to engage in aggressive actions along the country's borders. and pushed its foreign intelligence agency to become more active in more distant regions.
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World Sep 18, 2023 0 11 Add to Reading List

In a risky quest for secrets, the United States and China expand their espionage operations globally

As the Chinese spy balloon drifted over the continental United States in February, American intelligence agencies learned that Chinese President Xi Jinping had become furious with top Chinese military generals.

Spy agencies had been trying to understand what Mr Xi knew and what action he would take when the balloon, originally intended for US military bases of Guam and Hawaii, had deviated from its trajectory.

Mr. Xi was not opposed to risky espionage operations against the United States, but American intelligence agencies concluded that the People's Liberation Army kept Mr. Xi in the dark until the balloon flew over the United States.

US officials would not discuss how spy agencies gleaned the information. But in details reported here for the first time, they found that when Mr. Xi learned of the ball's trajectory and realized it was derailing planned negotiations with Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, he reprimanded senior generals for not telling him the balloon had gone astray, according to U.S. officials briefed on the intelligence.

The episode highlighted the growing and highly secretive spy-on-spy competition between the United States and China. The balloon crisis, a small part of a much larger Chinese espionage effort, reflects a brazen new aggressiveness by Beijing in gathering intelligence on the United States as well as Washington's growing capabilities to collect its own information on China. ="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">For Washington, the espionage efforts are a critical part of President Biden's strategy to curb China's military and technological rise, consistent with his thinking that the country represents the most great long-term challenge for American power. .

For Beijing, the new tolerance for bold actions by Chinese spy agencies is driven by Mr Xi, who has led his army to engage in aggressive actions along the country's borders. and pushed its foreign intelligence agency to become more active in more distant regions.

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