Growing tensions in the US-China spy war. Beijing is pledging countermeasures after the head of the CIA said the agency has been working to rebuild its spy network in China.
“About a decade ago, China rolled up a lot of CIA operations in China. A dozen or more CIA sources were arrested or executed. Have you rebuilt?,” said Mary Louise Kelly, co-host of All Things Considered.
“We’ve made progress and we’re working very hard over recent years to ensure that we have a strong human intelligence capability to complement what we can acquire through other methods um on the Cyber front the recent,” said William Burns, director of the CIA.
Mr. Burns was referring to a major breach over a decade ago. When China broke up the CIA’s spy network in the country.
The consequences of that incident were huge. New York Times at the time reported that China killed or detained over a dozen CIA sources. One was shot in front of his co-workers, in the courtyard of a Chinese government building.
The report cited unnamed US officials. NTD reached out to the CIA for comment, but did not hear back before air time.
Beijing said it took note of Burns’ comment about rebuilding.