Chinese intelligence agency MSS confronts US CIA, tracks and attacks using AI data
Chinese intelligence agency MSS is confronting the U.S. CIA and has strengthened its aggressive efforts to track its opponents through the application of artificial intelligence (AI).
MSS (Ministry of State Security) is now directly confronting the US CIA through intelligence collection and deception around the world, and Chinese agents in Beijing are equipped with an artificial intelligence system to track US agents, the New York Times reported on the 17th 27th.
Julian E. Barnes, a U.S. intelligence reporter who shared information with U.S. officials and experts familiar with the deal on the condition that they not disclose the names of the contracting companies involved, and Edward Wong, former Beijing bureau chief for the New York Times, co-wrote the article. We reported on this day about MSS, which has intensified its confrontation with the CIA.
The two reporters have been jointly covering and reporting on Chinese intelligence issues for five years, and this article is based on interviews with more than 20 current and former U.S. officials, most of whom reported on condition of anonymity, and a review of Chinese company internal documents and public MSS documents. It is the basis.
With the CIA's spending on China doubling since the inauguration of the Biden administration and the United States sharply stepping up spying on Chinese companies and their technological advancements, the recent rivalry between U.S. and Chinese intelligence services is reminiscent of the Soviet KGB versus CIA showdown at the height of the Cold War. do.
The New York Times obtained minutes of meetings within China's intelligence agency, which revealed that artificial intelligence-generated profiles allow Chinese spies to select targets and pinpoint networks and vulnerabilities.
The intelligence operatives' interest in the MSS technology, which was first revealed, revealed the grand ambitions of China's main intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security, which has been built through extensive recruitment in recent years, including from US citizens.
NYT said, “The agency is also working to achieve Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s goal of China competing with the United States as the world’s leading economic and military power through better training, larger budgets and use of advanced technology.” The spies wanted more, and during meetings with Chinese technology contractors during the pandemic, they complained that surveillance cameras that track foreign diplomats, military officers and intelligence agents in Beijing's embassy district were not meeting their needs,” the report said.
Intelligence agents asked for an artificial intelligence program that could create an instant dossier on every person of interest in the area and analyze their behavioral patterns. offered to provide information.
The difference from the Soviet KGB is that China's economic boom and industrial policies have allowed the MSS to use emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to challenge American spy networks in ways the Soviets could not, and these technologies have enabled Chinese and American mutual spying. It has become the best area for activity.
U.S. intelligence agencies have long focused on gathering economic intelligence, exposing the gathering of detailed information about commercial technological developments outside the defense industry and once being limited to intelligence activities that the U.S. should avoid.
In the United States, the Department of Defense is strengthening intelligence collection on American companies developing military and civilian technologies, and unlike a few years ago, the CIA is focusing its resources on collecting data on Chinese companies developing artificial intelligence quantum computing and other tools. there is.
“We have been counting tanks and understanding the capabilities of missiles for longer than we have been focusing on the capabilities of semiconductors, artificial intelligence algorithms, or biotechnology devices,” CIA Deputy Director David Cohen said in an interview. “We are pursuing investment and reorganization to address the challenge of collection,” he told the NYT.
The NYT said, “The agency has launched both the China Mission Center (CMC) and the Technology Information Center.”
NYT continued, “China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has an authoritarian aspect in addition to the external responsibilities of the U.S. CIA and the domestic authority of the FBI,” and “MSS conducts intelligence collection and operations abroad, limits foreign influence in China, and engages in so-called subversive activities.” "The Communist Party's mission is clearly political and is to defend the Communist Party against all perceived threats."
In the establishment of the China Mission Center (CMC), which was the first major decision made by CIA Director William J. Base stations around the world have adjusted to focus on intelligence gathering about China.
Director Burns took this action following a strategic review led by Michael Collins, career intelligence director, in the creation of the CMC. Director Collins was appointed director of strategy and tasked with improving the intelligence agency's work on China. .
Collins, who currently heads the National Intelligence Council, the spy agency's governing body, told the New York Times that "China's challenge requires the United States to get smarter in critical areas like biotechnology and semiconductors. We have to be better." He said.
The NYT has revealed that MSS is making aggressive moves abroad, recruiting far-right Belgian politicians and harassing Chinese critics of the party.
Based on the Justice Department's indictment, the NYT reported that one MSS agent hired a local private investigator to physically attack a Chinese-American congressional candidate from Long Island, while another agent was accused of helping set up a group that lured dissidents in New York. revealed.
Michael C. Casey, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, told the NYT, “In 2018, MSS’ Singapore agents created a fake consulting company using the same name as a prominent U.S. consulting firm and posted online job postings under that company’s name.”
Unlike Russian operatives, MSS operatives generally avoid working undercover in the United States, preferring instead to operate agents or assets from outside the country and recruit online, including through job postings with no apparent ties to China, U.S. officials told the NYT. said.
“Intelligence agencies are not institutionally built to understand China’s commercial and technological issues, and it is difficult to do so,” said Jimmy Goodrich, a Rand Corporation adviser and China technology expert. “But more importantly, like Wall Street analysts and market researchers, “You have to talk to everyone up and down the supply chain,” he told the NYT.
Regarding the problem in the United States, the NYT said, “American intelligence agencies prefer information from satellites, wiretapping programs, and human spies,” and added, “The problem is that analysts are overlooking valuable insights gained from China’s non-classified sources.” delivered his remarks.
“The U.S. intelligence community can do amazing things against concentrated targets, but sometimes it can struggle with broad awareness, such as understanding China’s technological capabilities,” Mattis, a former CIA analyst, told the NYT.
To better understand what technologies China is targeting, the CIA began seeking insight from U.S. executives and academics into the technologies Chinese companies are seeking to develop.
U.S. officials said they are securing knowledge of certain technologies from U.S. universities and companies that are often approached by Chinese investors and researchers.
Currently, U.S. intelligence agencies are struggling to provide information to policymakers as quickly as they would like, and officials told the NYT that it is important to bring in people with deeper knowledge of China's commercial and technological ambitions.
Last year, when the Canadian company TechInsights first publicly announced the development of a 7-nanometer chip by China's leading chip manufacturer CMIC, Rand Corporation's China expert Goodrich advisor said, "The U.S. government was not aware of this development and the Chinese company “I was surprised that it took off so quickly,” he told the NYT.
In response, a U.S. official anonymously told the NYT, “U.S. intelligence agencies assessed before the Canadian report that this company had at least the ability to produce smaller chips.”
Artificial intelligence is a clear battlefield for U.S. and Chinese intelligence agencies.
The U.S. government believes that gaining an edge in artificial intelligence will help offset China's numerical advantage.
NYT said on the 17th, “American officials estimate that Chinese officials hope this technology will help counter American military power, including pinpointing American submarines and dominating space.”
The United States has established new centers focused on Chinese espionage at the CIA and the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, strengthening its ability to intercept electronic communications, including through the use of spy planes off China's coasts.
The FBI has stepped up its pursuit of Chinese efforts to recruit spies in the United States in its counterintelligence task force with branches across the United States.
“The spying conflict with China is much broader than the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War,” said FBI Director Christopher A. "It's a way of using everything against us at once, mixing cyber, human intelligence, corporate transactions and investments to achieve this," he told the NYT.
The concern among U.S. officials is that China's large population and economy could allow it to build a larger intelligence agency than the United States, and that Chinese agencies will increasingly seek to gather information through personal contacts.
The New York Times reports that more than ever, U.S. officials say China's main intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security, is aiming to place agents or recruit assets across the U.S. government, technology companies, and the defense industry.