With President Donald Trump in office, and a firm “America First” policy in place, the world seems quite a bit different.
Once noticeable change is that national security seems more robust here and around the world. Last month, for instance, I reported that three Chinese scientists were accused of smuggling restricted biological materials into the the country for use at the University of Michigan.
Two will remain in custody after waiving their right to a hearing Friday in federal court. The third remains in China, after he was sent back during his recent attempt to return the U.S. when red plant material was discovered in his backpack.
These are the only recent detainments of potential saboteurs, spies, and hackers from China in the U.S. But a fair number of them have been nabbed in various international locations.
To begin with, in my hometown of San Diego, two Chinese men were arrested, accused of spying on U.S. military facilities and attempting to recruit American service members for China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS).
The suspects, Yuance Chen, 38, and Liren “Ryan” Lai, 39, made their initial appearances in federal court Monday in Portland, Oregon, and Houston, Texas, on charges issued out of the Northern District of California for purportedly committing espionage offenses on behalf of the government of China, the federal investigative service reported.At least one search warrant in the case was served in San Diego, according to comments about the investigation posted on social media by FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. Others were issued in San Francisco, Houston and Portland, Bongino wrote. Details on those enforcement actions were not released…. [A]ctivities allegedly included facilitating a “dead drop” cash payment for information about U.S. national security, gathering intelligence about U.S. Navy personnel and bases and assisting with efforts to recruit other people from within the American military as potential MSS assets, according to the FBI.
Italian officials, at the request of the U.S., have arrested Xu Zewei, a Chinese national who may be one of their state-sponsored hackers. Xu is accused of stealing COVID research from American universities and participating in the mass hacking of Microsoft Exchange servers between 2020 and 2021.
The 33-year-old IT manager at a Shanghai company appeared on Tuesday before an appeals court in Milan, which will decide whether to send him to the United States. The man was arrested last week after he arrived at Milan’s Malpensa airport for a holiday in Italy with his wife.U.S. authorities allege that he was part of a team of hackers who in 2020 hacked and otherwise targeted U.S.-based universities, immunologist, and virologists conducting research into COVID‑19 vaccines, treatment, and testing. The U.S. Justice Department says a research university located in the Southern District of Texas was also targeted.The DOJ also says that in 2021, he was part of a cyber-espionage group known as Hafnium, which has alleged ties to the Chinese government and which “exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in U.S. systems to steal additional research.”…The charges listed on the arrest warrant were wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and unauthorized access to protected computers.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, authorities have detained two people from China suspected of attempting to steal military technology related to the country’s Neptune missile system.
Counterintelligence officials arrested a 24-year-old former student in Kyiv after they provided him with “technical documentation” related to Neptune production, it said in a statement.They later detained his father, who had aimed to smuggle out the documents to the Chinese special services, the SBU said. The father had been living in China but visited Ukraine to “personally coordinate” his son’s work, the agency said.A Ukrainian official told Reuters the two men were the first Chinese people arrested for spying since Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion.
It looks like China can say “goodbye” to the days of spying and hacking without getting caught or facing repercussions.
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