China has detained a military group worker suspected of spying for the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) of the United States, said national security authorities on Friday. The 52-year-old Zeng was working in a military industrial group and was accused of providing military secrets to the CIA in exchange for large sums of money.
According to China's Ministry of State Security, Zeng had been sent to Italy by his employer for studies, and he met "an official with the US embassy" who later turned out to be a CIA agent.
"Zeng gradually developed a psychological dependence on (the US official), who took the opportunity to indoctrinate him with Western values," said the Ministry in a statement on its WeChat page.
It further claimed that the CIA official promised the suspect of providing large amounts of money and helping his family emigrate to the US if he provides sensitive information about China's military. The worker had access to that information through his job.
"Having finished overseas study, Zeng returned to China and continued to have multiple secret meetings with the CIA agents and provided a great amount of key intelligence and collected funds for spying," the ministry further said.
Zeng's arrest adds to the growing list of public accusations of espionage between China and the United States. Earlier this month, the US had arrested two soldiers of its naval force on charges of providing military secrets to Beijing.
The two sailors, both based in California, were charged with similar moves to provide sensitive intelligence to the Chinese. But they were separate cases, and it was not clear if the two were courted or paid by the same Chinese intelligence officer as part of a larger scheme.
The US officials have expressed their concerns for years about the espionage threat, according to them, the Chinese government poses, bringing criminal cases in recent years against Beijing intelligence operatives who have stolen sensitive government and commercial information.
In April, the Justice Department arrested a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman on charges of leaking classified military documents about Russia's war in Ukraine and other sensitive national security issues.
Jinchao Wei, a 22-year-old sailor assigned to the San Diego-based USS Essex, was arrested on Wednesday while boarding the ship.
Prosecutors said Wei, who was born in China, was approached by a Chinese intelligence officer in February 2022 while he was applying to become a naturalised US citizen, and admitted to the officer that he knew the arrangement could affect his application.
(with AP inputs)
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