For years, Beijing has been recruiting residents of the United States for a variety of espionage activities.
Ping Li, a 59-year-old U.S. citizen of Chinese descent, has become embroiled in a high-profile scandal. The U.S. Department of Justice has accused him of long-term espionage on behalf of China.
Li, who resides in Wesley Chapel, Florida, worked for a major American telecommunications company and an international IT firm after moving to the U.S. The charges allege that he collaborated with the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) as an agent, conveying a range of information from cyberattack data to details about banned religious movements.
According to the investigation, in 2012, Li collected biographical information about a person connected to the Falun Gong religious movement and provided it to the MSS within a week of receiving the assignment. Falun Gong has been banned in China since 1999 and is not among the five officially recognized religions due to its ideological opposition to the Chinese government.
In 2015, Li allegedly gathered information about his employer in the telecommunications sector following the company’s opening of several offices in China. He completed this task within three weeks.
After the pandemic began, Li’s activities increased significantly. Between May 2021 and June 2022, he fulfilled three requests from the MSS. One of these involved information about cyberattacks on American companies linked to Chinese state groups.
While working at an international IT firm, Li reportedly passed sensitive details regarding cybersecurity training materials to his employer, likely so the MSS could devise attacks capable of bypassing technical and cultural defenses.
The latest incident of Li's espionage dates back to June 2022. According to the investigation, he provided the MSS with information about the property owner where a person who fled from China to the U.S. was staying.
“Li used various anonymous online accounts to communicate with the MSS and traveled to China for meetings with agency representatives,” the U.S. Department of Justice stated.
Who else has spied for China
- Casey Leong. A former CIA agent arrested in 2018 on charges of espionage for China. Leong allegedly provided classified information to Chinese intelligence for several years.
- Jerry Chun Shing Lee. A former CIA officer arrested in 2012. Lee was accused of supplying China with information about the CIA's network in China, leading to the exposure and elimination of several American agents.
- Kevin Mallory. A former CIA employee and Defense Intelligence Agency officer. Arrested in 2017 for passing classified documents to Chinese intelligence. In 2019, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Source: TheRegister, Wikipedia
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