Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was the latest fly caught in China’s honey trap. The bait was a lover: Alice Huang.
But Jensen won’t be the last. It is a trap as old as time, spanning the world — and deployed right here in California, too.
The Soviet Union has a long history of using this tactic. They practiced it during the Cold War — ensnaring a low-level FBI counterintelligence agent in LA named Richard “RW” Miller.
But China, unsurprisingly, has begun mass producing this technique via a virtual assembly line. One early example was the case of Katrina Leung. By the end, Leung had slept with two FBI China counterintelligence supervisors, obtaining classified information and influencing US intelligence efforts.
I was an FBI special agent for over 30 years, working counterintelligence investigations in Southern California. Red China’s most concentrated efforts against us began once it was granted most-favored-nation trade status. I watched the People’s Republic of China’s counterintelligence efforts against America, and specifically California, grow to surpass those of the Soviet Union.
Presently, China’s spying activities dwarf those of all other foreign nations combined. Not only does China employ vast numbers of agents against us, but does so while employing a wide variation of approaches. With the world’s second-largest economy, it brings numbers, power, and financial resources to bear that the Soviet Union could never have imagined.
As an open society, we have some major vulnerabilities. China can and does influence our society and its policies by covertly funding political campaigns and social movements. More directly, they place their people in our politicians’ offices.
This has a long history. Remember California Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s aide? How about former congressman and California gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell? Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang? From federal to state to local, the examples are legion.
And the Chinese Communist Party is certainly not squeamish about using extortion and blackmail when needed. In fact, it’s one of its go-to techniques. Time and again, I saw China threaten the welfare of loved ones still in China or others under its thumb, in order to force people to do its bidding. This ruthless arm extends worldwide, and includes “police stations” placed in western cities to conduct surveillance and intimidate opponents.
Communist China is most tempted by our technological prowess and secrets, ranging from military advantages to medical advances. Every year, China dispatches tens of thousands of students to our universities to gain access to our cutting-edge technology research labs. These students of privilege, being children of Communist officials and businessmen, are obligated to return with American data. China pays their high tuition fees, guaranteeing the continuing silence of our college administrators.
When they can’t gain access through college students or coercion, China turns to other means. One time-honored method is sending trained agents to America to gain positions within vital US companies.
That was the case with electrical engineer Chi Mak, a Downey resident, Anaheim employee and holder of a “SECRET” security clearance. By the time he was caught and convicted, Mak had been providing China warfighting data for decades.
Chi Mak helped leapfrog China’s navy 20 to 30 years ahead, enabling it now to rival and threaten ours. He also recruited “Greg” Dongfan Chung, an aerospace engineer. Chung came from a strong anti-communist family in Taiwan. His parents had actually fought the communists. Yet he was won over by appeals to his ethnic pride and desire to “make China and the Chinese people look great on the world stage.” By the time he was caught and imprisoned, Chung had provided China reams of sensitive data about sensitive American military and civilian technologies.
In the end, both Mak and Chung died in jail while serving their long prison sentences. But that is of little comfort.
China sees America, and California — the closest, richest, most populous, most influential, and most diverse state — as easy targets.
That must change.
James Gaylord is a retired FBI agent and author of “CHASING CHI: The FBI’s Groundbreaking Pursuit of China’s Most Prolific Spy Family.”
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