CCP Spy Network Runs Deep in U.S.
      Military laboratories, Ivy League universities, private citizens face
      widespread espionage and repression from Chinese agents
        (http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/5-6-20/29637.html)

      By Jonathan Browde
      The Epoch Times


      Jun 20, 2005


            (AFP/Getty Images)
      A large network of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spies is rampant in the
      U.S., say members of Congress, Ivy League academics, and two defecting CCP
      officials.
      The spies aim not only to steal military and technology secrets but also
      to influence, repress, and even control the ideals and actions of
      Americans.
      In defecting in Australia early in June, CCP officials Mr. Hao Fengiun and
      Mr. Chen Yonglin sparked a string of headlines, first in Australia then in
      Canada, about a massive network of CCP spies in Western countries that
      could far exceed previously held estimates of the problem.
      On the heels of these revelations, Australia’s foreign minister and
      Canada’s prime minister both personally responded to criticism from
      opposition leaders that their governments had not done enough to curb
      espionage and other illicit activity by CCP agents in their countries.
      According to one scholar with intimate knowledge of several Ivy League
      universities and associated research centers, however, the problem is far
      greater in the United States, where a public dialogue on the issue has yet
      to emerge.
      “If China has deployed 1,000 spies to Australia and another 1,000 to
      Canada,” the scholar noted, “can you imagine how many are here in the
      U.S.?”
      Military Designs and Technology Stolen
      Prior to 9/11, Chinese espionage was a top concern among the nation’s
      lawmakers and security agencies.
      In May 1999, a Congressional select committee on military and commercial
      concerns with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) issued a report
      detailing the problems of Chinese espionage in the U.S. According to the
      declassified version of the report, known as the Cox Report, the primary
      targets of Chinese espionage had been the nation’s weapons laboratories,
      such as Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, Oak Ridge and Sandia.
      Dating back several decades “and almost certainly continu[ing] today,” the
      report says key military technologies such as advanced thermonuclear
      weapons, the neutron bomb and an assortment of nuclear missiles had been
      taken by Chinese spies.
      “The PRC,” says the report, “uses a variety of techniques, including
      espionage, controlled commercial entities, and a network of individuals
      and organizations that engage in a vast array of contact with scientists,
      business people, and academics.”
      According to the FBI’s annual report, there has been a 20-30 percent rise
      in the number of Chinese espionage cases in Silicon Valley, a hotbed of
      technology innovation located south of San Francisco.
      On February 13, 2005, Time magazine reported that over 3,000 companies in
      the U.S. are suspected of gathering intelligence for the PRC. Many of
      these companies, says a source who has worked with a number of Ivy League
      Universities and associated research centers, are fronts for China’s
      “People’s Liberation Army.”
      According to Xu Wenli, a pro-democracy advocate who was jailed for 12
      years in China, the CCP actively recruits and sends students abroad to
      gather information for the government. Some of these students then move on
      to work for military and government contractors here in the U.S.—all the
      while, gathering and sending information back to the CCP.
      More recently, however, another side of China’s spy network, one that aims
      to influence, repress, or control ideology and discussions on university
      campuses, has been highlighted.
      Chinese Communist Fronts Mobilized at U.S. Universities
      According to several academics at Yale, Harvard, Columbia University and
      the University of Pennsylvania, the CCP has been very active on U.S.
      campuses. Working primarily through on-campus student groups, they say
      Chinese consulate officials seek to silence academics critical of the CCP,
      and promote the regime as peaceful, progressive and a vital player on the
      world stage.
      According to one Ivy League scholar, Chinese consulate officials meet with
      students on campus, providing them with direction and organizing “united
      fronts” against CCP critics.
      “I was present at one such meeting,” said the scholar.
      As a result, lecturers at the universities offering critical analyses of
      the Chinese government have sometimes met with hecklers who would stand up
      and yell at them in the middle of their lectures. “The aim,” says the
      scholar, “is to not only discredit the lecturer and the subject matter,
      but also intimidate fellow students from adopting points of view critical
      of China. This has happened to me on a number of occasions.”
      According to this scholar, consulate officials also pay students to attend
      rallies and other events promoting the Beijing government. Dr. Yi Rong, a
      human rights worker in New York City concurs. “Chinese students are paid
      and bussed in by the hundreds to form a greeting rally whenever a
      high-ranking Chinese official visits the city,” says Dr. Yi.
      In October 2002, Chinese students from several universities, including the
      University of Chicago and University of Houston, were offered free
      clothing and payment to welcome then-Chinese leader Jiang Zemin during his
      trip to Chicago and Houston. In an e-mail to the students, the Friendship
      Association of Chinese Students & Scholars described the event as a
      “serious political task” and, according to Voice of America, required all
      participants to sign a document forfeiting their First Amendment rights
      during the event in an apparent attempt to curb any would-be protesters.
      Any one violating the agreement could be fined up to $5,000 dollars, VOA
      reported.
      The First Secretary of the Office of Tibet in New York City, (Snu) Tendar,
      says the CCP has also deployed teams of “scholars” around the world to
      deliver lectures at major universities. Tendar says that using the forum
      of scholarly discourse and lectures, these teams have promoted pro-Beijing
      ideas, such as classifying the invasion of Tibet as a “liberation” of the
      people from the “feudal lords” of the Dalai Lama.
      At Columbia University, hate literature was found posted in the Asia
      Studies building, reiterating word-for-word CCP propaganda against the
      Falun Gong group. Campus police quickly disposed of the materials upon
      their discovery.
      At Yale University, a student running for president of the Association of
      Chinese Students & Scholars at Yale (ACSSY) quickly found herself a target
      of criticisms attacking her personal beliefs when it became known she
      practices Falun Gong. During a public debate on the day before the
      election, a member of the audience asked, “If you get elected, how are we
      going to keep our relations with the Chinese consulate?”
      Many of the ACSSY activities around campus are sponsored by the New York
      Chinese consulate.
      “You’d think that an Ivy League campus would be free of this sort of
      thing,” says one graduate student at Columbia University, “given the
      weight that dialogue, diversity, respect, and tolerance have in our
      community. But it’s pretty clear these aren’t quite traditions or values
      China’s current leadership subscribes to, and that’s why we’re seeing acts
      of hate and intimidation like these happening here, in the U.S., of all
      places.”
      CCP Repression of Falun Gong Throughout U.S.
      Outside university campuses, CCP agents or those believed to be working
      under their direction, have sought to repress and intimidate practitioners
      of Falun Gong, Tibetans and other groups perceived as a threat or vocal
      critics of the CCP.
      Acting as a volunteer spokesperson for Falun Gong in New York City, Ms.
      Gail Rachlin says her apartment has been broken into five times since the
      CCP first launched its campaign to eradicate Falun Gong in 1999. In each
      break-in, no valuables were stolen. “Only my personal phone list…a
      rolodex….things like that,” says Rachlin.
      On two separate occasions, Dr. Sen Nieh, a professor at Catholic
      University of America in Washington D.C and a local Falun Gong
      spokesperson, has come home to find private conversations with
      friends—which took place in public venues such as parks or
      walkways—recorded on his answering machine. The second of the two
      instances, reported in the Washington Post on July 20, 2001, was a
      conversation he had with other Falun Gong practitioners while standing
      outside a Senate building on Capitol Hill immediately after meeting with a
      senator’s staff to brief them on the persecution of Falun Gong.
      “Obviously, they are trying to send a clear message that they are watching
      us at every moment...they’re trying to scare us,” says Dr. Nieh.
      In January 2003, Hong Lei, a spokesperson for the Chinese consulate in San
      Francisco, went on local Chinese television to say that the consulate had
      a list of all Falun Gong practitioners in the San Francisco Bay area and
      warned them not to go back to China.
      Public venues have also come under fire. Hotels in San Francisco and New
      York have been contacted by Chinese consular officials or threatened by
      unidentified callers, pressuring them not to allow Falun Gong events to be
      conducted in their facilities. In November 2004, the National Arts Club in
      New York City received several threatening phone calls, including at least
      one bomb threat, on the opening night of an art exhibit with works
      depicting the Falun Gong practice and the persecution in China.
      Several Falun Gong spokespersons have reported receiving death threats.
      There has also been actual violence.
      In September 2001, two assailants attacked Falun Gong practitioners
      conducting a sit-in outside the Chinese consulate in Chicago, beating one
      victim to the ground and tearing his clothing. Two of the assailants were
      arrested and pled guilty to battery. They were both members of an
      organization with very close ties to the Chinese consulate.
      In June 2003, a group of assailants attacked several Falun Gong
      practitioners as they demonstrated outside a restaurant in New York’s
      Chinatown. The head of a local Chinese community organization, Mr. Guan
      Jun Liang, was arrested in connection with the attack. Criminal charges
      against Liang, who personally greeted Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao when he
      visited New York in 2003, were dropped, but a civil lawsuit against Liang
      is in progress.
      Falun Gong practitioners have also been physically attacked in San
      Francisco, Toronto, and Boston.
      The United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution in September
      2004, condemning China’s actions of spying on and harassing Americans who
      practice Falun Gong, which listed instances of breaking and entering as
      well as assault and battery.