Several hundred French compromised by widespread Chinese espionage network
DHARAMSALA, Oct 26: The Communist Chinese regime is trying to recruit or spy on thousands of French experts to extend its global subversion and influence.
For decades China is known to have carried its operations across the world to influence the politics of other nations, to censor critical discussion of its history and human rights record and to intimidate critics of its repressive policies.
But according to the latest news report, China Sought Thousands of French Experts for Work and Espionage. “Chinese agents targeted some 4,000 French individuals, including civil servants, scientists, high-level managers, and other influential figures,” Le Figaro, a French paper reported.
Off the targeted lot, 1,700 of them are employed or otherwise involved with national institutions, the report noted.
The Chinese agents reportedly used fake LinkedIn accounts to present themselves as entrepreneurial representatives, think tank members, or consultants, who offer all-expenses-paid trips to China to the experts they are trying to recruit in a bid to recruit or spy on thousands of French experts.
“The Chinese agents were able to use this method to establish relationships with their French targets. Meanwhile, the Chinese regime used incriminating photos and financial records from the trips as resources for potential blackmail, thus gaining leverage over the experts,” the French paper stated.
The French intelligence agencies to Paris is understood to have issued a report on the widespread Chinese espionage network using professional social media accounts, including LinkedIn, to contact important figures earlier this year on Oct 19.
The French paper zeroed in on the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS), the CCP’s main intelligence agency behind the widespread Chinese espionage network.
The MSS has about 200,000 employs, while France’s General Directorate for External Security, (DGSE), which oversees foreign intelligence has just 10,000People.
The authorities from the French have described the extent of the MSS’s activities as representing an “unprecedented threat” to the French national security and are said to be taking the matter very seriously.
Similar Chinese recruitment operations by various hidden means were reported across the world as more and more countries become aware of the CCP’s infiltration tactics promoting authorities to issue warnings to their citizens and take counterintelligence measures.
