U.S. officials say a pattern of infiltration at U.S. military bases could amount to espionage.
The Pentagon and the FBI report cases of Chinese nationals gaining unauthorized access to U.S. military bases and other secure areas.
According to The Wall Street Journal, a government review finds there have been up to 100 such incidents in recent years.
Officials call these intruders “gate-crashers” because of their attempts to get on bases or other government installations without approval. The incidents range from Chinese nationals being discovered on the grounds of a U.S. missile base in New Mexico to scuba divers caught swimming near a U.S. government rocket launch site, the outlet reported.
Those apprehended often claim to be tourists and use what officials describe as scripted responses when confronted by security guards.
One case that was made public in 2020, involved three Chinese citizens who were sentenced to about a year in prison after pleading guilty to illegally entering the naval air station in Key West, Florida, and taking photos, according to The Journal.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington called U.S. officials’ claims “fabrications.”
“The relevant claims are purely ill-intentioned fabrications,” Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson with the embassy, told the outlet. “We urge the relevant U.S. officials to abandon the Cold War mentality, stop groundless accusations, and do more things that are conducive to enhancing mutual trust between the two countries and friendship between the two peoples.”
U.S.-China tensions are at an all-time high following the shoot-down of a Chinese spy balloon near the coast of South Carolina after it was allowed to fly over the entire continental U.S. in February.
As CBN News reported, Pentagon officials said a “significant amount” of electronic technology was suspended below the balloon. The payload carried by the balloon weighed around 2,000 pounds and was the size of three school buses.
The U.S. and China continue to accuse each other of spying.
Last month, Chinese authorities detained a worker from a military-industrial group on suspicion of spying for the CIA.
The communist regime’s Ministry of State Security, China’s civilian spy agency, said in a statement that a military-industrial worker surnamed Zeng had been providing military secrets to the CIA in exchange for large sums of money.
Earlier in August, two U.S. Navy sailors were charged with providing sensitive military information to China, including details on wartime exercises, naval operations, and critical technical material.
The two sailors, both based in California, were charged with similar moves to provide sensitive intelligence to the Chinese. But it wasn’t clear if the two were courted or paid by the same Chinese intelligence officer as part of a larger scheme.
U.S. officials said the cases exemplify China’s brazenness in trying to obtain insight into U.S. military operations.
Chinese Infiltrators Coming Across Southern Border
Gatestone Institute China analyst Gordon C. Chang told CBN News’ The Global Lane that some infiltrators are likely coming across our southern border.
“It’s most definitely an espionage threat. There’s a pattern there,” Chang said. “China uses every point of contact with the United States to undermine and destroy our society.”
“Well, you can say, ‘Those are just isolated incidents,’ but not a hundred of them,” he noted.
“We have all of these Chinese migrants coming across our southern border in unprecedented numbers. And although almost all of them are who they say they are — they’re just desperate and have given up on China — some of them appear to be saboteurs,” Chang explained.
“There are packs of males in groups of five to 15 of military age, unaccompanied by family groups who pretend not to speak English and some are known to have links to the Chinese military,” Chang added.
Those caught on restricted property are often detained and escorted out of the country.
China analyst Gordon Chang explains what China is doing.
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