Govt flexes serious muscle in spy games against US

BEIJING: A cartoon posted in a dusty alleyway in the heart of Beijing warns passersby not to fall prey to the charms of foreign men: they might be spies.

It is a graphic reminder of a struggle usually waged in the shadows, and a sign of the Chinese government’s intensifying campaign against espionage.

The poster’s comic book tale of love gone wrong ends in tears and a stern warning.

But China’s real-life spy games have had a darker denouement, according to a New York Times article on Sunday alleging that authorities had killed or jailed up to 20 people for spying on behalf of the US Central Intelligence Agency.

The counterintelligence operation took place between the end of 2010 and 2012, the Times said, an exceptionally sensitive period in Chinese domestic politics that saw the downfall of some of the country’s most prominent politicians amid a delicate leadership transition.

Since then, there has been a marked rise in warnings against the influence of so-called “black hands”, with state media often fretting about the infiltration of “foreign forces” into domestic politics and society.

The rhetoric has been accompanied by a tightening of the domestic security environment, including a recent raft of sweeping legislation formalising the government’s broad powers to counter foreign threats.

In April last year, China passed a law placing strict restrictions on for- eign non-government organisations, which are often accused by Beijing of trying to subvert the state and portrayed in Chinese media as fronts for US intelligence operations.

At the same time, Beijing ramped up a public campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of infiltration from abroad, ranging from the poster featuring the illfated lover to the promise of large cash rewards for informers.

Since coming to power in 2012, President Xi Jinping “has put a lot more emphasis and devoted a lot more resources to the internal state security apparatus” such as “severe internal check-ups” on officials, said political analyst Willy Lam.

The shift was part of an anti-corruption effort that unseated China’s domestic security czar Zhou Yongkang and top spymaster Ma Jian.

Following the changes, “both the United States and Taiwan have faced more difficulty using the usual channels to recruit spies,” said Lam.