Security forces’ crackdown on foreign spies ‘normal’: China

China on Monday defended the crackdown on foreign spies as "normal" while its official press applauded Beijing's anti-espionage activities. "As for the situation relating to New York Times story, I am not aware of it," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a briefing here, replying to a question that Chinese government had allegedly killed or imprisoned more than a dozen CIA sources between 2010 and 2012.

"But I can tell you that China's National Security authorities are following legal mandate to carry out investigations into organisation's personnel and action that harms China's national security interests.

"For this normal discharge of duties by security organisations we have no comment on that," Hua said.

The state-run Global Times, however, came out with a scathing editorial against NYT's spy story, saying it is "full of narcissism".

"If this article is telling the truth, we would like to applaud China's anti-espionage activities," it said.

"Not only was the CIA's spy network dismantled, but Washington had no idea what happened and which part of the spy network had gone wrong. It can be taken as a sweeping victory. Perhaps it means even if the CIA makes efforts to rebuild its spy network in China, it could face the same result.

"As for one source being shot in a government courtyard, that is a purely fabricated story, most likely a piece of American-style imagination based on ideology," the editorial said.

Stating that the CIA has apparently increased its espionage activities in China, which will inevitably lead to China simultaneously strengthening its counter-intelligence efforts, the report said "no matter how Americans see it, international law will affirm that China's antiespionage activities are just and legal, while the CIA's spying is illegitimate".

"When the US media is keen on hyping up "catching Chinese spies, they should forego their moral narcissism when reporting CIA espionage in China. It's absurd that under their description, the US is always the noble side whether it is catching spies or sending spies," the editorial added.–PTI

The state-run Global Times, however, came out with a scathing editorial against NYT's spy story, saying it is "full of narcissism"