New York arrests 'China agent': Former aide to governor says not guilty of charges

now Federal prosecutors in the US have indicated have indicted rather a former Aid to New York's Governor accusing her of being an agent of the Chinese government Linda son and her husband Chris Hugh allegedly received millions of dollars in cash and Gifts in return for promoting beijing's interests in New York's state government both have pleaded not guilty to the charges and posted bail at a hearing held on Tuesday New York Governor Kathy hul said she f son in 2023 after discovering evidence of misconduct this isn't the first time China has being implicated in accusations of targeting Western politicians in April two British men one of them a UK parliamentary Aid were charged with providing sensitive information to China between 2007 and 2014 a Chinese agent known as Daniel woo targeted a Belgian far-right Member of Parliament to influence operations Within the EU China says Western spy agencies are also targeting Chinese officials in June Beijing accused the UK of recruiting two Chinese government workers into MI6 by exploiting what it called strong desire for money Glenn Carl is a former deputy National Intelligence officer at the CIA he spent 23 years working in the agency's clandestine Services joins us now live from Boston good to have you with us so first of all are we seeing a pattern here China's Espionage activities growing as its economy has grown over the years I think that's exactly right um this is this case is unusual and that there is a substantial amount of evidence concrete evidence that that that can be used in a court to prosecute and prove that Espionage has occurred more typically with Chinese cases is that is that there intelligence operations is that there is not a hard evidence like this uh the incidence of Chinese uh tar targeting Western uh countries uh increasing goes back about 15 years it corresponds roughly with the accession of sh xianping to power and of China's rise in U in global power and then a third thing the Chinese intelligence Services have gone through through a major transformation in the past two decades and have become a world class uh capable now as they were not re really prior to that Al we we got to keep in mind that the uh the people accused in this latest a case they're denying that they are guilty of anything and that's still going through the court process there hasn't been a conviction yet but talking more broadly is beijing's spy strategy linked to its ambition of being a bigger Global power this is just part of the power growth you could say well yes but not only um so they capability increases as their power increases and so do their their uh their definition uh of national interests uh and so it is frankly natural that the country would be conducting more more intelligence operations Now One conducts intelligence operations where a perceived threat or interest resides and in this clear instance or this or this instance it is clearly the with the great rival of China which is the United States these are the two great powers in the world at present and and so they will pay a lot of attention to each other I think in the past two decades there have been the data I know is a little data but well well over 154 indictments by us uh uh law enforcement authorities against Chinese um ESP Espionage cases that's a dramatic increase from previous decades uh and the director of the FBI and the CIA have been saying for years in in uh testimony about threats to the United States national interests that China poses the greatest intelligence threat as well as strategic challenge to the United stat so it's not it's not a surprise that China do this or that one of them here seems to have been caught and we've got to keep in mind it's not just China is it I mean all major Global Powers get involved in Espionage including the CIA which you used to work for but are we going to see really is the reality is as China grows in its power as the US tries to hold on to its power we're going to see if we can call it the Spy War heating up oh oh I would say it's already heated up I mean there there has been a measurable increase in the number of cases that the FBI which means Counter Intelligence investigation that the FBI has opened and conducts um concerning uh Chinese operations in the United States the same is true I know in the United Kingdom Kingdom and in France and elsewhere uh so the the trend has already increased and the only thing that would change that would would be were the United States in China or the UK and China the West in China frankly to become more aligned politically one doesn't spy as much on one's friends as on one's Rivals but other than that this will happen it's a uh a a much more dramatically present active world of Espionage then almost anyone except those of us who were involved in it realize there are intelligence operations going on everywhere at all times I'm sure that is the truth thanks so much Glen Carl their former deputy 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