The New York “Wall Street Journal” reports that Western services are overwhelmed by the scale of China's espionage campaigns – Beijing's operations exceed those of the Kremlin during the Cold War. The United States and other countries are unable to contain the threat and, due to trade ties, cannot afford to take drastic measures.
Beijing's espionage operations are on an unprecedented scale and combine the activities of intelligence services, private companies and Chinese citizens. According to one of the European intelligence agencies, up to 600,000 people may be involved in these operations.
FBI director Christopher Wray said that there are 50 times more Chinese hackers than American security service employees in cyberspace. He estimated that China's cyberespionage program is larger in scale than that of all the largest countries combined – explains “WSJ”.
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The daily estimates that thanks to the changes introduced by the leader of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, Beijing's espionage operations exceed those of the Kremlin during the Cold War.
Possible retaliation against Beijing is difficult
In recent months and years, Chinese hackers have infiltrated US power and telecommunications networks, the sewage system, voter databases in the UK, infected the power grid in India, and there are cranes operating in US ports that, according to a US congressional investigation, they may secretly control. take over power in Beijing. In addition, the FBI discovered intrusions by Chinese hackers into 260,000 cameras in the USA, Great Britain, France, Romania and other countries.
According to “WSJ”, possible retaliation against Beijing is difficult not only due to the scale of its espionage operations, but also due to the dependence of Western economies on trade with China. The head of British counterintelligence, MI5, Ken McCallum, said that most countries simply cannot afford to introduce sanctions against the People's Republic of China or expel diplomats.
The decentralized and unusual nature of China's operations is also a problem. European officials quoted by the daily say that Beijing is increasingly basing its espionage activities on Chinese students and scientists studying or working at Western universities, and that in recent years they have become increasingly better at masking their activities.
One example is that they sign up for literature or language classes, only to later change their specialization to advanced technologies and other sensitive areas.
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