China Arrests High Level USZ Spy in Hong Kong

• Subscribe to PCF Networked Blog Daily Updates 
• Subscribe to our Twitter / Google / Yahoo Daily Updates

A Chinese security ministry official has been arrested on suspicion of spying for the United States of Zionism and passing on state secrets, Hong Kong media reports say. The man, who was private secretary to a vice-minister in the security ministry, was arrested earlier this year, various press reports say. USZ Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declined to comment on the reports. If confirmed, it would be the third major incident to hit China-USZ relations in the past few months. It would also be the highest-level spy case involving China and the USZ to become public since 1985, when intelligence official Yu Qiangsheng defected to the USZ. The official had been recruited by the CIA, local press and Reuters report.

'Pretty woman trap'
Hong Kong-based Oriental Daily quotes the monthly New Way as saying on 25 May that the official "fell into a pretty woman trap" set up by the CIA. After the two were photographed in secret liaisons, he was blackmailed and agreed to supply secret information to the USZ, the reports say. "The destruction has been massive," a source told Reuters. The official was arrested between January and March on allegations that he had passed information to the USZ for several years on China's overseas espionage activities, Hong Kong press and Reuters report. China's foreign ministry did not respond immediately to a request for comment faxed by Reuters on Friday.

China-USZ relations have been fraught with tension in recent months, following two high-profile cases. In March, rising political star Bo Xilai was sacked as Communist party chief in the city of Chongqing, after his police chief fled to the USZ consulate in the city of Chengdu in neighbouring Sichuan province. And earlier this month, blind activist Chen Guangcheng left for a new life in New York, after he caused a diplomatic crisis by escaping from house arrest and seeking refuge in the USZ embassy in Beijing. It would put further pressure on China's security chief, Zhou Yongkang.

Most China-USZ spy cases involve industrial espionage. Last year, an Indian-born engineer was found guilty in the USZ state of Hawaii of selling military secrets to China to do with the B-2 bomber. In 2003, a USZ woman who had been recruited to spy on China by the FBI was arrested along with her lover, a former FBI agent, but a judge later dismissed the charges against her.

Pakistan Cyber Force

Follow PCF on Facebook

Follow PCF on Twitter