Secretary of state refuses to discuss the detention of Chinese aide accused of passing information to US
Reuters in Oslo and The New York Times in Beijing 03 June 2012
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton declined to comment on the arrest of a Chinese state security offical suspected of spying for the United States, saying only that the countries continued to co-operate.
The official, an aide to a vice-minister in China’s security ministry, was detained early this year and accused of passing information to the US for several years on China’s overseas espionage activities, three sources earlier said.
Sources said both countries had kept the case quiet for several months to prevent a fresh crisis in relations.
“I am not going to comment on the report you just cited,” Clinton said on Friday at a news conference in Oslo.
Asked if there were issues that had arisen in recent months that would prevent the US and China from co-operating on matters of mutual interest, she replied: “The answer is no.”
It is unclear what kind of information the detained Chinese official is suspected of having given to the US and whether that information has compromised any operations by the Chinese government.
David Wise, the author of the 2011 book Tiger Trap: America’s Secret Spy War With China, said Chinese intelligence was “a very hard target”.
“If the CIA had a mole inside the Ministry of State Security, that would be a pretty big deal,” Wise said. “It would open a window on Chinese intelligence operations worldwide, and what they’re doing against the US. We might be able to identify their operatives and find out what the Chinese government role is in cyberwarfare, which has never been proven.”
This year, the Communist Party was dealing with a fragile moment in China’s relations with the US. In February, a former Chinese police chief drove to the US consulate in Chengdu to present evidence linking the wife of a Politburo member, Bo Xilai , to the killing last year of a British businessman, Neil Heyood. Security officials escorted police chief, Wang Lijun, to Beijing after spending one night in the consulate.
Recently, news of the spying suspect’s detention had been circulating quietly, without confirmation, in some foreign intelligence circles. A spokesman for the American embassy in Beijing declined to comment.
A senior administration official said the arrest came amid a series of investigations that began after the revelations in the Bo affair.
It was not clear whether the espionage case was related to these probes.
This year, senior Chinese officials imposed a foreign travel ban on scholars at an important research centre based in Beijing that some analysts say has ties to the Ministry of State Security.
The overseas travel ban on the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, was related to an intelligence breach, said a person who has contact with the institute’s scholars, and could well be a direct result of the discovery and detention of the official suspected of spying for the US.
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Clinton won’t comment on spy case
Secretary of state refuses to discuss the detention of Chinese aide accused of passing information to US
Reuters in Oslo and The New York Times in Beijing
03 June 2012
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton declined to comment on the arrest of a Chinese state security offical suspected of spying for the United States, saying only that the countries continued to co-operate.
The official, an aide to a vice-minister in China’s security ministry, was detained early this year and accused of passing information to the US for several years on China’s overseas espionage activities, three sources earlier said.
Sources said both countries had kept the case quiet for several months to prevent a fresh crisis in relations.
“I am not going to comment on the report you just cited,” Clinton said on Friday at a news conference in Oslo.
Asked if there were issues that had arisen in recent months that would prevent the US and China from co-operating on matters of mutual interest, she replied: “The answer is no.”
It is unclear what kind of information the detained Chinese official is suspected of having given to the US and whether that information has compromised any operations by the Chinese government.
David Wise, the author of the 2011 book Tiger Trap: America’s Secret Spy War With China, said Chinese intelligence was “a very hard target”.
“If the CIA had a mole inside the Ministry of State Security, that would be a pretty big deal,” Wise said. “It would open a window on Chinese intelligence operations worldwide, and what they’re doing against the US. We might be able to identify their operatives and find out what the Chinese government role is in cyberwarfare, which has never been proven.”
This year, the Communist Party was dealing with a fragile moment in China’s relations with the US. In February, a former Chinese police chief drove to the US consulate in Chengdu to present evidence linking the wife of a Politburo member, Bo Xilai , to the killing last year of a British businessman, Neil Heyood. Security officials escorted police chief, Wang Lijun, to Beijing after spending one night in the consulate.
Recently, news of the spying suspect’s detention had been circulating quietly, without confirmation, in some foreign intelligence circles. A spokesman for the American embassy in Beijing declined to comment.
A senior administration official said the arrest came amid a series of investigations that began after the revelations in the Bo affair.
It was not clear whether the espionage case was related to these probes.
This year, senior Chinese officials imposed a foreign travel ban on scholars at an important research centre based in Beijing that some analysts say has ties to the Ministry of State Security.
The overseas travel ban on the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, was related to an intelligence breach, said a person who has contact with the institute’s scholars, and could well be a direct result of the discovery and detention of the official suspected of spying for the US.
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