The US and UK have created yet another wave of hype about so-called China espionage, only this time with a clearer purpose, more "sensational language" and the aim of manipulating the West's perception of China, Chinese experts said, after the heads of the FBI and MI5 warned that China's industrial espionage poses a growing threat to Western groups, including through special purpose acquisition companies. 

Given in the UK, where Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced he resigned as the Conservative Party leader and is set to resign as prime minister after a slew of scandals, and in the US, which has witnessed a surge in gun violence and social issues that are tearing society apart, experts said a new form of xenophobic McCarthyism is on the rise in those Western countries. This is especially the case in Five Eyes alliance countries, which are experiencing waves of social and economic problems. Heaping domestic pressure on other countries, especially a rising China, and fanning the "China threat" theory are all old tricks that they use. 

In a joint appearance in London, the chiefs of the US and UK intelligence agencies called on companies to be much more vigilant about China.

FBI director Christopher Wray said Beijing was using "elaborate shell games" to disguise its spying and was even taking advantage of Spacs. "The Chinese government poses an even more serious threat to Western businesses than even many sophisticated businesspeople realize," Wray told corporate leaders.

MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said that the MI5 had seen a sevenfold increase in China-related investigations since 2018, had doubled its capacity to deal with them over the past three years and would probably double capacity again over the next "handful of years," the Financial Times reported. 

In response to those remarks, the spokesperson from the Chinese embassy in the UK said on Thursday that "allegations against China by US and UK intelligence officials are completely groundless and the so-called cases they listed are pure shadow chasing. This is a typical example of a thief crying 'catch thief'. We deplore such a despicable and deceptive trick."

The spokesperson pointed out that US and UK intelligence agencies are notorious for their constant engagement in eavesdropping, theft, infiltration and subversion against other countries. They spread all kinds of lies about China in order to smear China's political system, stoke anti-China and exclusionary sentiment, and divert public attention in order to cover up their own infamous deeds.   

Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at the regular press conference on Thursday that the US intelligence officer's remarks exposed the US' deep-rooted zero sum mentality and ideological prejudice. The US just celebrated its 246th Independence Day, and the country was not at war for only 16 years throughout its 240-plus years of history, which made it known as "the most warlike nation in the history of the world," said Zhao, noting that the US is the biggest threat to world peace and development as it has launched wars everywhere and created conflicts internationally.  

The bogus accusation from the two officials of China's so-called espionage problem is not new, Liu Chang, a researcher of US studies at the China Institute of International Studies told the Global Times, noting that such accusations come every few months and each time use more "sensational language" than the previous ones.

This time, the accusation is more planned and systematic, as it aims to intimidate Western companies and also to manipulate the West's perception of this problem, Liu noted. 

Last month, the Global Times learned from sources that the Five Eyes Alliance is collecting and fabricating evidence that intends to show China is "infiltrating politically into Western countries," with the aim of tarnishing China's image around the world.

Similarly, a briefing released on Wednesday by the US' National Counterintelligence and Security Centre warned that China exploits the nature of the US federal system to influence local and state leaders. It said that "The PRC (People's Republic of China) understands US state and local leaders enjoy a degree of independence from Washington and may seek to use them as proxies to advocate for national US policies Beijing desires."

In response, Zhao said at the Thursday briefing that this is an example of a Chinese idiom that describes somebody who has lost his axe and accuses the neighbor of stealing it. He said the US accusation is full of zero sum mentality and makes something out of thin air. 

Liu warned that other Five Eyes countries may also follow the UK and the US suit, and exaggerate the "China threat" in their own country. "We've already seen the giant power of mixture of cognitive warfare and psychological warfare after the Russia-Ukraine crisis, thus we should not underestimate the damage by the US in concocting and spreading false information," said Liu.

Experts said that the hyping of the "China threat" and so-called espionage problem will actually backfire, as it deals a huge blow to normal exchanges and cooperation between the two countries and terrifies Chinese scientists and corporations that work in those Western countries. 

In a previous interview with the Global Times, Huang Zhengyu, President of the Committee of 100, a US organization of prominent Chinese Americans in business, government, academia, healthcare and other fields, said that the "China Initiative" launched by former US President Donald Trump aimed at cracking down on Chinese scientists has backfired. According to 2021 research by the Committee of 100 on over 2,000 scientists, including Chinese scientists in the US, many elite scientists are reluctant to apply for federal funding and have decided to stop cooperation with China. Some are even considering leaving the US.


McCarthyism out of incompetence 

Wang Wen, professor and executive dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, said he noticed that whenever the Five Eyes countries are in a hard-pressed situation, such as a battered economy or seeing other countries surpass them, McCarthyism becomes prevalent in their countries so as to heap their domestic pressure onto countries such as China.

Western countries have been facing a slew of woes lately. In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resigned as Conservative leader and will step down as prime minister when a new leader is found, the BBC reported Thursday. Johnson's government has been plagued by a series of scandals, from accusations of his disregard for rules and revelations of illegal lockdown-breaking parties held in Downing Street, to allegations of impropriety and abuse by Conservative lawmakers, media reported. 

In the US, the past Independence Day was marred by gun violence, protests and widespread despair over a failing country. Even its President Joe Biden has admitted that "in recent days, there has been reason to think that this country is moving backward, that freedom has been reduced, that rights we assumed were protected are no longer."

Wang said that taking the US as an example, Biden has been competing with his predecessor Trump to create a "new political correctness, which is to divert public attention by using McCarthyism. And in fact, blaming others for their own problem is an old tactic used by Western countries," according to Wang. 

Experts said that those Five Eyes alliance countries, led by Washington, is creating a chilling terror under which people from those countries are afraid of engaging in exchanges with people from China and vice versa. "Since the pandemic, people-to-people exchange between China and those countries has hit rock bottom. This is something the Five Eyes countries should reflect on," said Wang.