The high-altitude Chinese spy balloon shot down by the US Air Force in February was reportedly able to gather intelligence from several sensitive American military sites, despite the Biden administration’s efforts to block it from doing so, according to senior US officials. The intelligence China collected was mostly from electronic signals, which can be picked up from weapons systems or communications from base personnel, rather than images, the officials said.
China, naturally, got angry after the US shot down the huge balloon, because it was “a civilian airship.” Beijing insisted that the US Air Force behaved so irresponsibly by shooting down a Chinese civilian weather balloon. And China is telling the truth.
From the Associated Press: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak chastised China’s premier on Sunday for “unacceptable” interference in British democracy, after a newspaper reported that a researcher in Parliament was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of spying for Beijing. Sunak said he raised the issue with Premier Li Qiang when the two met at a Group of 20 summit in India. He told British broadcasters in New Delhi that he’d expressed “my very strong concerns about any interference in our parliamentary democracy, which is obviously unacceptable.”
The Sunday Times, September 10, 2023: “A British parliamentary researcher has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China in what is alleged to be one of the most damaging breaches of security involving a hostile state at Westminster. The male suspect, who is in his late twenties, is understood to be linked to a number of senior Tory MPs, including several who are privy to classified or highly sensitive information. They include Tom Tugendhat, the security minister, and Alicia Kearns, the chairwoman of the Commons foreign affairs committee.”
“Counterterrorism police arrested the researcher and another man in his thirties on suspicion of espionage-related offences in March. The researcher is a Briton who held a parliamentary pass and has worked with MPs on international policy, including relations with Beijing, for several years. He previously spent time living and working in China, where security officials fear he may have been recruited as a sleeper agent and sent back to Britain with the intention of infiltrating political networks critical of the Beijing regime,” the report said.
In July the Commons intelligence and security committee published a report claiming that China is targeting the UK “prolifically and aggressively,” but that government departments did not have the “resources, expertise or knowledge” to tackle the threat. The committee, which is made up of a powerful group of cross-party MPs, said Beijing had managed to “successfully penetrate every sector of the UK’s economy.”
The Global Times, the Chinese Communist Party’s official tabloid, said “the declining UK uses a self-staged ‘Chinese spy’ farce to gain attention.”
“The trivial matters in the British Parliament aren’t worth China’s efforts and risks of ‘planting spies.’ Those extremist politicians who gain attention by criticizing China are not highly regarded by today’s Chinese people. Moreover, with Sunak, of Indian origin, becoming Prime Minister and India surpassing the UK in GDP, the decline of the former empire is evident. Yet, they persist in clinging to their past glory and treating everything in their house as treasures,” the tabloid said.
Responding to China’s argumentum ad nauseam, Neil O’Brien, a Member of Parliament, said in a September 10 post on X: “When the free world criticises China’s unfair economic policy, international aggression and human rights abuses, Beijing claims that’s a ‘Cold War mentality.’ Now we learn they’re spying on MPs and subverting people in Parliament: waging a Cold War on us.”
A Chinese Embassy statement called the allegations “completely fabricated and nothing but malicious slander.” And China is telling the truth.
Indeed, the US and the UK should stop fabricating charges against China. In fact, other countries should stop maligning China. Published articles that said “China may have meddled in Australian politics, and tried to do the same in Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States, Canada and other countries during election seasons” are just blatant lies. China has never interfered in other countries’ affairs nor does it have any interest in doing so. And, yes, China is telling the truth.
As a proud member of the global community, China may refuse to comply with international law when doing so suits its interests. The 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration under the United Nations, which invalidated China’s nine-dash line claim in the South China Sea, is a perfect example. China does not like the decision, so the ruling is illegal, null and void. That’s because it owns the entire South China Sea. And China is telling the truth.
