Intelligence: Dealing With Chinese Theft and Espionage
October 19, 2025: Two months ago the FBI arrested two Chinese men, Yuance Chen and Liren Lai, charging them with espionage. The two were accused to seeking to establish espionage operations near naval bases. There they would observe and record on video naval activity. More importantly, the two would seek to recruit naval personnel to join their espionage operation.
China has been spying or collecting information about the United States since the early 1800s, when the first Chinese diplomatic mission was established. Since then, despite revolutions, civil war and the establishment of two Chinas in 1949, there has been some Chinese espionage activity in America
Since World War II the FBI, CIA and State Department have been involved with monitoring and seeking to thwart Chinese espionage activities. These involve a long list of activities.
For example, in 2019 the FBI arrested Zhongsan Liu, an employee of the Chinese government. His job was management at the New Jersey branch of China Association for International Exchange of Personnel or CAIEP. Since 2017 Liu was observed arranging illegal visas for Chinese recruiters who used CAIEP and Confucius Institutes at six American universities where these recruiters sought suitable students or faculty for espionage operations. Liu had spent the last 26 years working for CAIEP and was believed to have been active in the Thousand Talents Plan since its inception in 2008. That was about the same time the Confucius Institute program began in 2004 as a means to cultural exchange and, it was later discovered, a means of observing and controlling Chinese students attending foreign universities. As time went by it was discovered that the Confucius Institutes were more about intelligence work than cultural education. Many of the staff at the Confucius Institutes are Chinese with a PhD and a J-1 research visa.
As successful as this espionage effort was, most of the Chinese Americans approached by recruiters were not interested and politely declined. A growing number quietly reported their encounters to the FBI or to friends they knew could do it for them. The Chinese knew this was a risk and felt it was acceptable given the amount of intellectual property that was being stolen and put to work back in China.
https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htintel/articles/2025101963558.aspx#google_vignette&gsc.tab=0
