Espionage case disclosed where young man became civil servant under instruction of foreign spy

China's national security authorities recently disclosed an espionage case in which a young man became a civil servant under the instruction of a foreign spy, as reported by Shanghai Media Group on Tuesday. 

The young man surnamed Dong was born in the 1990s. After graduating from university in 2019, Dong started working at a research institute in Shanghai. One evening, on Dong's way to home, he was stopped by a foreigner asking for directions. They later became acquainted. 

The foreigner, who is actually a spy, turned to Dong for help to do monthly reports on their respective fields of study, and offered to reward him in payments. Later, the foreigner asked Dong to find industry-related content, data, and analysis reports from his workplace.

Dong was well aware that internal information was classified, but he couldn't resist the temptation of the payments. As their relationship deepened, under the guidance of the foreign spy, Dong even successfully became a civil servant, leading to more opportunities to access important and core information and data within the organization. Dong was asked to make copies or take photos of these documents at his instruction.

Despite being an employee with government background, with a weak sense of legal and confidentiality awareness, Dong willingly allowed himself to be exploited by the foreign spy for economic benefit, even though he was fully aware of the foreigner's background.

Eventually, his offense was busted by the public security authorities in August 2022. In November 2022, Dong was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for espionage.

The Shanghai security authorities warned that there are foreign spies operating on the internet, disguising themselves to carry out espionage activities. It is warned that foreign spies often disguise themselves as experts, scholars and researchers for foreign think tanks, research institutes, foundations, and other institutions. They spread recruitment information online, with easy tasks and simple operations, attracting part-time workers in related fields, allowing them to taste the benefits before taking further action.

China's newly revised Counter-Espionage Law officially came into effect on July 1. The new law improves the definition of espionage activities, includes the protection of documents, data, information, and items related to national security and interests, and adds provisions that consider joining espionage organizations and their agents as espionage activities.