China even has AI software that can recognise faces and detect the gait of an American spy, meaning traditional disguises are not enough to avoid detection.
As China’s spy balloon drifted across the continental United States in February, US intelligence agencies learned that Chinese President Xi Jinping had become enraged with senior Chinese military generals.
US officials, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss espionage, have stressed in interviews throughout the year the magnitude of the challenge.The CIA is focusing on Xi and, in particular, his intentions regarding Taiwan.
China’s vastly improved satellite reconnaissance and its cyberintrusions are its most important means of collecting intelligence, US officials say. Responding to that threat, federal agencies have quietly opened or expanded their in-house spy catching operations. China has undertaken its own expansive counterintelligence crusade, one that echoes Mao-era political campaigns. On July 1, China enacted a sweeping expansion of a counterespionage law.
China even has AI software that can recognise faces and detect the gait of an American spy, meaning traditional disguises are not enough to avoid detection, according to a former intelligence official. American operatives must now spend days rather than hours taking routes to spot any tailing Chinese agents before meeting a source or exchanging messages, former intelligence officials say.
US officials also determined that commanders on the Central Military Commission that Xi chairs were unaware of this particular flight until it was tipping into crisis, and they vented their frustration at the generals overseeing the surveillance program.Since that crisis, China has paused its balloon fleet’s operations, but US officials say Beijing will probably restart the program later.
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