Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Hawai'i Free Press

Current Articles | Archives

Monday, November 4, 2024
Exploring China's Efforts to Spy in Hawaii
By Selected News Articles @ 1:56 PM :: 311 Views :: Military

Exploring China's Efforts to Spy in Hawaii

by J.P. Atwell, Island Intelligencer

People often ask me about China’s espionage activity in Hawaii. Interest in the matter peaked on 11 September, when a Honolulu court sentenced long-time Oahu resident, UH Manoa graduate, and former CIA Operations Officer and FBI Honolulu Field Office translator Alexander Ma to ten years in prison (with five more years of supervised release and a lifetime requirement to submit to government debriefings and polygraphs) for serving as a mole for China’s Ministry of State Security. (Ma and I worked for the same Agency office. He is a generation ahead of me, and we never met, but we had mutual acquaintances.)

So, how bad is it? Let’s look at incidents made public in the past few years.

Recent Chinese human intelligence activity here is probably not limited to running spies like Ma. Chinese nationals’ acquisition of land adjacent to U.S. military bases on Oahu and gate crashers (Chinese nationals claiming to be tourists who “accidentally” wander into or photograph restricted areas) have also become the subject of investigations and appear to be part of a nationwide trend.

Technical collection incidents have also emerged. Analysts assess that the Chinese spy balloon shot down off South Carolina’s coast in February 2023 was originally tasked to collect over Hawaii before being blown off course. The month prior, China’s Daqi-1 satellite was caught scanning the Big Island with technology that can monitor pollution (as China claims) or perform highly accurate topographical mapping (the type needed for military applications). In 2018, the U.S. Navy monitored a Chinese signals intelligence ship loitering off our shores, collecting against the movements and communications of the joint international RIMPAC naval exercise.

Covert action operations have also surfaced. In December 2023, a water utility in Hawaii was identified as one of several infrastructure nodes targeted in a People’s Liberation Army cyber operation that was laying the groundwork for future sabotage. In September that year, Beijing launched an agitprop operation online to try to convince locals that a secret U.S. government “weather weapon” sparked the fires in Lahaina.

Let’s not forget industrial espionage. You may recall the publicized warnings about China’s activities in this regard from Assistant General Attorney for National Security John Demers after he met with Hawaii government and military leaders in 2019 as part of a U.S. Department of Justice program, “The China Initiative.”

What to make of all this?

Hawaii is not being singled out. Increasingly aggressive Chinese intelligence operations (and military and diplomatic initiatives) are part of the new normal around the globe. In the past year, in the U.S. alone, Chinese espionage-, cyber-, and covert influence-ops have been uncovered coast-to-coast, from a penetration of a San Diego military unit to a plant in the New York Governor’s office. China’s influence-buying diplomatic initiatives and strategic investments have gone into high gear from Gabon to Palau. On the military front, Chinese naval and air assets this year, for the first time, joined longstanding Russian probes of Alaska’s airspace and waters, even as they ramped up the frequency and scope of similar activities against Taiwan and became more violent with Philippines Navy vessels in the South China Sea.

Why? Beijing is casting off any semblance of historical East Asian gentility as President Xi tries to, as fast as possible, shore up his autocratic grip on power internally and, externally, solidify a legacy as the new age emperor who rebuilt China’s standing as the Middle Kingdom, the center of all things. (For the parochial, let me cut you off. No U.S. presidential candidate can undo this and no U.S. political party is responsible for it. This is bigger than U.S. domestic politics and foreign policy.)

Relatedly, and in closing, Hawaii residents face an uncomfortable reality. Should U.S.-China tensions evolve into conflict, the home of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and the U.S. Pacific Fleet will likely play a significant role, including that of target. Recent reports of Chinese military leaders’ study of Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor should give Oahu dwellers pause.

I wish I could deliver more lighthearted news on this matter, but I would have to be dishonest to do so.

A hui hou.

---30---

Originally published in the Hawaii Tribune Herald on 03 November 2024. Reprinted here with permission.

The Island Intelligencer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

 

Links

TEXT "follow HawaiiFreePress" to 40404

Register to Vote

2aHawaii

Aloha Pregnancy Care Center

AntiPlanner

Antonio Gramsci Reading List

A Place for Women in Waipio

Ballotpedia Hawaii

Broken Trust

Build More Hawaiian Homes Working Group

Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii

Cliff Slater's Second Opinion

DVids Hawaii

FIRE

Fix Oahu!

Frontline: The Fixers

Genetic Literacy Project

Grassroot Institute

Habele.org

Hawaii Aquarium Fish Report

Hawaii Aviation Preservation Society

Hawaii Catholic TV

Hawaii Christian Coalition

Hawaii Cigar Association

Hawaii ConCon Info

Hawaii Debt Clock

Hawaii Defense Foundation

Hawaii Family Forum

Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United

Hawaii Farmer's Daughter

Hawaii Federation of Republican Women

Hawaii History Blog

Hawaii Jihadi Trial

Hawaii Legal News

Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance

Hawaii Matters

Hawaii Military History

Hawaii's Partnership for Appropriate & Compassionate Care

Hawaii Public Charter School Network

Hawaii Rifle Association

Hawaii Shippers Council

Hawaii Together

HiFiCo

Hiram Fong Papers

Homeschool Legal Defense Hawaii

Honolulu Navy League

Honolulu Traffic

House Minority Blog

Imua TMT

Inouye-Kwock, NYT 1992

Inside the Nature Conservancy

Inverse Condemnation

July 4 in Hawaii

Land and Power in Hawaii

Lessons in Firearm Education

Lingle Years

Managed Care Matters -- Hawaii

MentalIllnessPolicy.org

Missile Defense Advocacy

MIS Veterans Hawaii

NAMI Hawaii

Natatorium.org

National Parents Org Hawaii

NFIB Hawaii News

NRA-ILA Hawaii

Obookiah

OHA Lies

Opt Out Today

Patients Rights Council Hawaii

Practical Policy Institute of Hawaii

Pritchett Cartoons

Pro-GMO Hawaii

RailRipoff.com

Rental by Owner Awareness Assn

Research Institute for Hawaii USA

Rick Hamada Show

RJ Rummel

School Choice in Hawaii

SenatorFong.com

Talking Tax

Tax Foundation of Hawaii

The Real Hanabusa

Time Out Honolulu

Trustee Akina KWO Columns

Waagey.org

West Maui Taxpayers Association

What Natalie Thinks

Whole Life Hawaii