From balloons to suspicious land purchases, a look at Chinese espionage in the US

The Chinese surveillance balloon that was detected earlier this week floating in the airspace of the United States rang alarm all across the country, while also prompting Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone his Beijing trip. However, the high-altitude balloon is only the tip of the iceberg of the long history of espionage shared between the US and China, better known as each other’s geopolitical rivals. Here, we take a look at it. 

The Chinese balloon spotted this week is not a one-of-a-kind activity, but one of the many incidents observed by American officials in the past. According to CNN, a US official said that Hawaii and Guam had also witnessed similar surveillance objects, with another stating that “instances of this activity have been observed over the past several years, including prior to this administration.”

One may think why China would prefer balloons over modern satellites to carry out such activities. However, balloons have proved their reliability since the Cold War, and the US has used dozens of them to keep a check on its rival nations, according to ex-Royal Australian Air Force officer Peter Layton. 

They seem to be coming back in fashion for spying as “balloon payloads can now weigh less, and so the balloons can be smaller, cheaper and easier to launch” than satellites, Layton said. When objects are not enough to monitor adversaries, China tends to rely on its scientists, students, and businesspeople, according to US intelligence officials and experts.

Chinese national sentenced to prison over espionage charges

Earlier in January, Ji Chaoqun, a Chinese national, was given a prison sentence of eight years for spying on behalf of the Chinese government while studying electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2013. He was convicted of gathering valuable information about engineers and scientists in the United States.

China has also used land purchases to its advantage. In 2017, the Xi Jinping government offered $100 million for the construction of a Chinese garden filled with pavilions, temples, and a white pagoda at Washington DC’s National Arboretum. However, the project was scrapped after US counterintelligence officials found that the pagoda was set to be placed at a high point, looking over the US Capitol and being an ideal spot for intelligence collection. Sources stated that Chinese officials wanted to construct the pagoda with items that are shipped to the US in diplomatic containers that are not examined by customs officials.