Chinese spies ‘bribed official over Huawei case’

The FBI has accused Beijing of trying to ‘lie, cheat and steal’ its way to a competitive advantage, revealing details of ‘constant’ threats from China.

The FBI says it opens an investigation involving threats from China ‘about every 12 hours’.

The FBI has accused Beijing of trying to “lie, cheat and steal” its way to a competitive advantage as the US announced charges against 13 Chinese nationals it said were involved in espionage.

Two of the men have been arrested and the others remain at large in three cases, including allegedly bribing a US official for inside information on a criminal investigation into the telecoms giant Huawei.

The other cases involve applying pressure on a Chinese dissident to return home, and posing as academics to recruit operatives.

Christopher Wray, the FBI chief, said that the threat was constant and that his agency opened a Chinese counterintelligence investigation “about every 12 hours”.

US Attorney-General Merrick Garland announces charges against 13 individuals, including members of the Chinese intelligence and their agents, for alleged efforts to unlawfully exert influence in the US for the benefit of the government of China. Picture: Getty Images

Asked whether the announcements were timed to coincide with President Xi’s confirmation for a historic third term as the Chinese Communist Party’s general secretary, Wray avoided any specific link.

“We bring cases when they’re ready. And that’s probably the simplest answer and most straightforward answer to that, as far as what signal they send. If the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party, continues to violate our laws, they are going to keep encountering the FBI,” he said.

Huawei was charged in 2018 with a systematic campaign to steal US trade secrets and evade sanctions on Iran. It pleaded not guilty in 2020.

Two intelligence officials working from China tried to recruit a US government employee to provide inside information on the justice department’s prosecution, the US said.

Court documents did not name the company but they referred to the dates when the US unsealed its charges against Huawei in 2019 and 2020.

The two agents believed they had recruited an American official to help them and paid this person $61,000 in bitcoin to supply internal documents related to the case, the US said.

However, their informant was a double agent working with the FBI.

Asked about the charges, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said: “China has always asked its citizens to obey the laws and regulations of the countries they are in. Some people in US law enforcement … have openly provided shelter for Chinese fugitives and obstructed China’s efforts to chase down fugitives, turning the US into a safe haven for the corrupt and for lawbreakers.”

The cases showed China “sought to interfere with the rights and freedoms of individuals in the United States and to undermine our judicial system that protects those rights”, Merrick Garland, the US Attorney-General, said.

“The justice department will not tolerate attempts by any foreign power to undermine the rule of law upon which our democracy is based.”

The Times