Five Eyes Warns Chinese Spies Using Job Platforms to Recruit Informants

(Central News Agency, London, June 3, Combined Foreign Reports) The Five Eyes security alliance, comprising the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, warned on Monday that Chinese spies are actively using online job platforms to recruit individuals with access to sensitive information. According to a Reuters report, the advisory, titled "Safeguarding Our Secrets," states that Chinese military intelligence agencies are extensively using professional social networking sites and online recruitment services to target government, military, or any personnel with access to classified information. The security agencies of the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand said: "The ultimate goal of Chinese military intelligence agencies is to obtain military, political, and economic intelligence that could give China a strategic and tactical advantage over the Five Eyes." While individual countries have issued similar warnings in the past, this joint advisory is described as unprecedented. Beijing, however, has repeatedly denied the espionage allegations, dismissing them as "pure fabrication and malicious slander." In the advisory, Five Eyes agencies noted that Chinese spies are particularly targeting personnel specializing in defense, diplomacy, and intelligence affairs, as well as members of all military branches stationed in the Indo-Pacific region. Journalists, think tank researchers, or those with only indirect access to government data are also at risk. The advisory states that these spies employ "aggressive online recruitment tactics," and successful recruits are subsequently pressured to provide classified information to "unidentified clients with ties to the Chinese government." The advisory said recruits can receive hundreds to thousands of dollars per report, with higher pay for more sensitive information. The US has previously warned about Chinese intelligence agencies using deceptive methods to target current and former government officials; Britain's MI5 also warned lawmakers last November about Chinese agents attempting to infiltrate parliament. (Editor: Qu Xiangping) 1150604