Obama warns Beijing about agents operating in US
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has delivered a warning to Beijing about the presence of Chinese government agents operating secretly in the United States to pressure prominent expatriates — some wanted in China on charges of corruption — to return home immediately, according to US officials.
The US officials said Chinese law enforcement agents covertly in this country are part of Beijing’s global campaign to hunt down and repatriate Chinese fugitives and, in some cases, recover allegedly ill- gotten gains. The Chinese government has officially named the effort Operation Fox Hunt.
The US warning, which was delivered to Chinese officials in recent weeks and demanded a halt to the activities, reflects escalating anger in Washington about intimidation tactics used by the agents. And it comes at a time of growing tension between Washington and Beijing on a number of issues, including the computer theft of millions of government personnel files that US officials suspect was directed by China, China’s crackdown on civil liberties and the devaluation of its currency.
Those tensions are expected to complicate the state visit to Washington next month by Xi Jinping, the Chinese president.
The work of the agents is a departure from the routine practice of secret government intelligence gathering that the United States and China have carried out on each other’s soil for decades.
The CIA has a cadre of spies in China, just as China has long deployed its own intelligence operatives into the United States to steal US political, economic, military and industrial secrets.
In this case, said US officials, who discussed details of the operation only on the condition of anonymity because of the tense diplomacy surrounding the issue, the Chinese agents are undercover operatives with the Public Security Ministry, China’s law enforcement branch charged with carrying out Operation Fox Hunt.