New Delhi, August 28
The Manmohan Singh government has received a highly classified report from its China experts warning against allowing the Chinese to surge into the country’s strategic sector without putting in place a foolproof mechanism of checks and balances.
The warning has come at a time when the two big Asian powers, which have fought a war in 1962, are engaged in improving their bilateral relations and the sincerity of this intent is reflected by the fact that Sino-Indian trade is set to cross the $ 17 billion mark this year.
The Tribune understands that there is a growing concern among the Indian policy-makers that New Delhi needs to be wary about Beijing’s dubious strategies and intelligence collection ploys used in the USA and Europe for years. The report has put a laser focus on the development of China’s technical intelligence collection work doctrine, especially when all round relations are developing between the two countries.
The government is likely to sensitise various ministries and departments about protecting the Indian private sector high technology community, the government infrastructure community which deal with telecommunications, railways, ports etc., to counter the Chinese forays into the country’s strategic sector, given the history of Chinese strategy.
Consider this. When China tested its first atom bomb in 1964, Chairman Mao Zedong declared it was for the third world. The Chinese diaspora, known as “Overseas Chinese” is united to make the People’s Republic of China a dominant power in the world. Heeding Mao’s call, Overseas Chinese scientists working in the West in nuclear and missile facilities returned to China in the 1950s and 1960s. They helped China to become the fifth nuclear power.
From the 1980s, China conducted two phases of procuring technology both legally and illegally. To do this, it totally revamped its intelligence collection machinery. The traditional Chinese intelligence apparatus was enabled to collect political intelligence, subvert foreign governments through revolutions and use Overseas Chinese businessmen to fund many of these activities.
Technology was procured mainly through Overseas Chinese returning home. Deng, followed by party General Secretary and President Jiang Zemin, changed all that. Deng and Jiang, separately and jointly, built China into a fascinating intelligence collection country. The question may be asked why “country” and not Chinese “agencies”, which is normal for all other countries?
The answer is that not only almost the entire population with abilities have been mobilised for this work, but Overseas Chinese who, for generations, may have lived abroad have been co-opted. The remarkable aspect is that while some may be wooed by money, most do it for nationalism — the central kingdom will not be humiliated again.
Chinese intelligence operatives infiltrated USA’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the late 1980s and illegally obtained the neutron bomb technology. While the US had to drop the programme following domestic political opposition, China has since conducted five tests of this devastating weapon suggesting it is operational. The Chinese agents also penetrated the US Los Alamos National Laboratory for nuclear weapon development in the late 1980s. Their job of procuring the technology for the W-88 miniaturized nuclear warhead was completed by 1995.
The USA has almost become a case study for Chinese intelligence collection and subversion. The 1990s witnessed American aerospace companies like Loral Space and Communications, Hughes Electronics and Motorola provide technology that enhanced China’s strategic ballistic missile and multiple warhead capabilities. China succeeded through adroit subversion of the system — pecuniary benefits and business bonanza.
In the early 1990s, analyzing military developments across the developed world, President Jiang Zemin promoted Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA). This called for slim military manpower and high technology.
Information technology and telecommunication had become the mainstay of modern warfare along with smart weapons. China seeks the best of these technologies which include military and industrial technologies. In the early 1990s, President Jiang Zemin issued a top secret directive to concentrate on Western Europe to procure technology.
The Wall Street Journal online (August 10, 2005) has come out with US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) concern over Chinese Intelligence infiltration. The FBI alleges that more than 3000 Chinese companies have been set up in the USA to collect “military or industrial technology illegally”.
The Chinese intelligence functions at multiple levels in the USA — the Overseas Chinese, students, researchers, apprentices and trainees.
According to the FBI, there are more than 15 cases of Chinese espionage being investigated currently. Most of them are in the information industry sector, something which should be a red flag for India.
For example, US software maker 3DGeo had brought in for training one Yan Ming Shan, an employee of its client State-owned PetroChina Co. Shan was jailed for transferring 3DGeo’s Proprietary Software programmes to PetroChina.
Here is the clinch. Following Shan’s arrest in 2002, PetroChina has not paid 3DGeo for work completed in September 2001. The Chinese strategy is intricate. Time, expenditure, patience, etc. are their hallmarks.
The links are so convoluted that they are difficult to trace back till the damage has been done. The Overseas Chinese community, especially the business and scientific community among them, are very potent weapons.
