Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 10:38:09 -0700 (PDT) From: David Prager Branner Subject: spying (fwd) To: Mi Mi Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII If you want to quote it in its entirety, you will probably have to contact Clarinet directly or take the chance yourself; I *will not* take responsibility if your use of it infringes on copyright in any way. I suggest you write to Clarinet; they are on-line all the time. If they refuse, you might contact AP, since the report is copyright by them; perhaps they will allow you to send it to the members of the list since you are doing so as part of a possible lawsuit, not for profit. Sincerely, David Prager Branner Asian Languages and Literature University of Washington, DO-21 Seattle, WA 98195 Report follows: >From clarinews@clarinet.com Tue May 24 20:34:18 PDT 1994 Article: 713 of clari.world.asia.china Approved: doug@clarinet.com Path: news.u.washington.edu!bass!bass!clarinews From: clarinews@clarinet.com (AP) Newsgroups: clari.world.asia.china,clari.living.books,clari.news.usa.gov.foreign_policy Distribution: clari.apo Subject: Book: China Spies Most On U.S. Keywords: Misc US Govt Copyright: 1994 by The Associated Press, R Message-ID: Date: Mon, 23 May 94 22:20:09 PDT Expires: Mon, 13 Jun 94 22:20:09 PDT ACategory: washington Slugword: China-Spying Priority: regular ANPA: Wc: 864/0; Id: V0906; Src: ap; Sel: -----; Adate: 05-24-N/A Codes: APO-1155 Lines: 87 Xref: news.u.washington.edu clari.world.asia.china:713 clari.living.books:125 clari.news.usa.gov.foreign_policy:1028 WASHINGTON (AP) -- China spies on the United States more aggressively than does any other nation, and U.S. counterespionage agencies are ill-prepared to cope with it, according to a new book by a Defense Intelligence Agency officer. Nick Eftimiades, a China specialist and counterintelligence analyst at the DIA, blames an ``unseen, unspoken'' but real and deliberate reluctance among U.S. political leaders in recent years to get tough with China on espionage. ``People don't want to bang on China,'' he said in an interview this week. In his book, ``Chinese Intelligence Operations,'' Eftimiades specifically cited the Bush administration's efforts to improve political relations with Beijing as an ``impediment to effective action against'' China's espionage. Robert Gates, director of the CIA during the Bush administration, said in an interview it was nonsense to suggest that counterspy efforts were hurt by President Bush's overtures to Beijing. But he agreed that China's spying activities have ``probably stepped up'' and ``become more sophisticated.'' The book's publication comes at a politically sensitive time in U.S.-Chinese relations, as President Clinton prepares to decide by next week whether to revoke most-favored nation trade privileges as punishment for Beijing's reported human rights abuses. Eftimiades stressed that his book was not meant as a call to arms against a threat to Western democracy; indeed, he notes that China's intelligence operations historically have suffered from sloppiness, poor planning and weak execution. Even so, he says, the sheer volume of operations ensures some will succeed. ``There is no question that their espionage activities are more pervasive than what we have seen from any other country,'' Eftimiades said in the interview. Yet when people think of foreign spying in the United States they think of Soviet ``moles'' such as Aldrich Ames, a CIA officer who pleaded guilty last month to selling state secrets to Moscow for nine years and was sentenced to life in prison. They don't think of Larry Chin Wu-tai. He was a CIA analyst who passed national secrets to Beijing for 35 years before retiring in 1981. Four years after retirement, Chin was indicted on spying charges and was later convicted. Eftimiades has spent 10 years in the intelligence business, first at the CIA and the State Department and now at DIA, where he helps assess damage caused by spying against America, including the Ames case. It is unusual for an active U.S. intelligence official to write a book on spying, and Eftimiades' experience in getting his published shows some of the reasons why. The least of his problems was having the manuscript reviewed by the government to ensure no secrets were disclosed. The real trouble came from fellow DIA workers, some of whom were angered that he did not share with DIA his interviews with Chinese intelligence officers. While some DIA officials protested to his superiors, Eftimiades said, the agency never challenged his right to publish the book, which he researched and wrote on his own time. He says the American government, including its counterintelligence agencies, practically ignored China's spying during the Cold War because the Soviet Union was seen as a more dangerous and immediate threat. Yet even now, after the demise of the Soviet empire, Washington pays relatively little attention to China's aggressive espionage and is sorely lacking in the linguistic and other skills required to combat it, Eftimiades says. ``The United States and other Western industrialized nations are woefully unprepared'' to counteract China's spying, Eftimiades wrote. Vincent Cannistraro, a former CIA officer who was director of intelligence programs at the National Security Council in 1984-87, said in an interview that he agreed U.S. capabilities to neutralize Chinese spying were lacking at a time when Beijing is ``engaged in espionage against us in a serious way.'' China's intelligence apparatus draws on the services of not only the 11,500 diplomats, trade representatives and other Chinese visitors here, but also the 15,000 Chinese students who arrive on U.S. campuses each year and hundreds of thousands of Chinese Americans around the country, Eftimiades wrote. One of China's favorite methods is to ``plant'' long-term agents in the United States who are trained to remain inactive for 10 years or more, until they have sunk deep roots into a U.S. corporation, institution or government agency. These are known in Chinese spy agency slang as ``fish at the bottom of the ocean.'' Eftimiades said China's top intelligence-gathering priorities in the United States are advanced U.S. technology for military use; identifying foreign policy trends, including trade; and counteracting Chinese dissident groups. The FBI, which has primary responsibility for counterintelligence within U.S. borders, the CIA and the Chinese Embassy declined to comment on the book.