Chinese nationals accessing sensitive US sites, raising spying fears: report

According to a Wall Street Journal report, there have been dozens of instances of Chinese nationals accessing military bases and other sensitive sites in the United States in recent years. Some of the nationals even posed as tourists in order to get in.

The Defense Department, FBI and other agencies held a review in 2022 to try to limit instances of these Chinese nationals, dubbed gate-crashers, getting into sensitive sites. Examples of the roughly 100 incidents discovered include gate-crashers crossing into a U.S. missile range in New Mexico and scuba diving in waters near a rocket-launch site in Florida.

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U.S. officials have described these incidents as a form of espionage. According to the officials, the Chinese nationals are testing security practices at military installations and other sensitive federal sites.

The Journal report comes amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China. The tensions spiked earlier in 2022 after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon after it flew across the country.

That incident, as well as the gate-crasher incidents, raise concerns over Beijing using nontraditional means to gather intelligence on U.S. soil.

“The Chinese government is engaged in a broad, diverse campaign of theft and malign influence without regard to laws or international norms that the FBI will not tolerate,” the FBI said in a statement. Emily Harding, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, added, “If a few of them get caught, it will be very difficult for the U.S. government to prove anything beyond trespassing, and those who don’t get caught are likely to collect something useful.”

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