Whenever I see threads and comments about privacy-related or sensitive topics, I often see concerns about China in particular stealing all that data.
Why is China, a country across a vast ocean, is seen as a bigger threat in that regard than US itself? Unlike Chinese, the local government does have power over its residents and can actually use this information against you (and it does have a record for doing exactly that). The only places where Chinese espionage would be a concern (military, high-tech industry) lay way beyond what an everyday American faces regularly.
So, is it a new red scare, or is there a substance behind it that I fail to see?
I mean, the subject of “Chinese Espionage in the United States” has a fairly lengthy page all of its own on Wikipedia with examples and concerns. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_espionage_in_the_United_States
Probably one of the most notable examples:
Between 2010 and 2012, intelligence breaches led to Chinese authorities dismantling CIA intelligence networks in the country, killing and arresting a large number of CIA assets within China.[43] A joint CIA/FBI counterintelligence operation, codenamed “Honey Bear”, was unable to definitively determine the source of the compromises, though theories include the existence of a mole, cyber-espionage, compromise of Hillary Clinton’s illicit classified email server as noted by the intelligence community inspector general,[44] or poor tradecraft.[43]Mark Kelton, then the deputy director of the National Clandestine Service for Counterintelligence, was initially skeptical that a mole was to blame.[43]
In January 2018, a former CIA officer named Jerry Chun Shing Lee[note 1] was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport, on suspicion of helping dismantle the CIA’s network of informants in China.[47][48]
And that’s just one we all know about. Not to mention a rich history of Chinese state-sponsored corporate espionage and a history of let’s say playing fast and loose with international norms, human rights, etc.
I don’t see why China catching CIA agents would concern Americans. Most Americans are not CIA agents inside China.
It’s more the fact they were running a mole in the CIA. If you want an example of more direct action, how does this one work for you (from just this week):
https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2024/09/25/chinas_salt_typhoon_cyber_spies/
In a related security advisory, government agencies accused the Flax Typhoon crew of amassing a SQL database containing details of 1.2 million records on compromised and hijacked devices that they had either previously used or were currently using for the botnet
Back in February, the US government confirmed that this same Chinese crew comprised"multiple" US critical infrastructure orgs’ IT networks in America in preparation for “disruptive or destructive cyberattacks” against those targets.
