USA sehen sich von chinesischen Spionen überrannt

Die New York Times berichtet über angeblich zunehmende chinesische Spionagetätigkeiten in den USA:

In interviews, current and former intelligence and law enforcement officials demonstrated uncertainty as to the precise scope of the problem of Chinese espionage. But many officials offered a similar description of the pattern of the cases: Chinese government and state-sponsored industries have relied on the Chinese diaspora — using immigrants, students and people of second- and third-generation Chinese heritage — and regular commercial relations to operate a system in which some people wittingly or unwittingly participate. One senior law enforcement official involved in prosecuting such cases said the Chinese had “a game plan of sending out lots of tiny feelers in hopes of getting back small bits of seemingly unrelated information in hopes of creating a larger picture.” David W. Szady, who as an assistant director of the F.B.I. ran its counterintelligence division until retiring in 2006, said the Chinese had “mastered the use of multiple redundant collection platforms” by looking for students, delegates to conferences, relatives and researchers to gather information.

Federal investigators have come to believe, Mr. Szady said in an interview, that while the collection system may appear haphazard, even random, the Chinese “have become very focused on what they want.” Officials said that several other nations, notably Iran and Russia, had aggressively engaged in espionage aimed at the United States. But Joel F. Brenner, the intelligence community’s top counterintelligence official, said China was by far the leading practitioner. In an interview, Mr. Brenner described China’s information-gathering efforts as “a full-court press and relentless.” As a result, he said, few professional analysts “really think that what’s going on is anything other than an orchestrated, deeply thought-out, strategic campaign.” But, Mr. Brenner said, not all the information-transfer cases involving China are part of that suspected government-led espionage effort. “Some instances are purely commercial and just involve greed,” he said.