Kevin Garratt returned to Canada last Thursday after a Dandong court had ruled in favor of his release, his family said. His trial was held in April, but the court had delayed issuing its verdict until last Tuesday.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the country had “fully guaranteed all kinds of procedural rights of Kevin Garratt, and fully respected and implemented the consular rights of the Canadian side.” But the ministry declined to say what investigators found or what the outcome of the trial was.

Garratt was running a coffee shop in Dandong in China’s northeastern region with his wife Julia Dawn where they had both been active in sending humanitarian aid across the border to North Korea. He was arrested along with his wife in August 2014, and charged with espionage and stealing state secrets.

Julia Dawn was released shortly after.

Garratt’s release comes shortly before Premier Li’s visit to Canada, scheduled to take place from Wednesday to Saturday, as well as shortly after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s trip to China where he pledged stronger economic ties between the two countries.

An unidentified Canadian official said Garratt’s release represents the good relations enjoyed between Canada and China. “We raised this case at the highest levels when we were there. It’s just indicative of the mature and healthy relationship we have,” he said.

Foreign Minister Stephane Dion said Canada did not make concessions to China to secure Garratt’s return.

Brock University professor Charles Burton said Beijing was likely to press for the return of what it has said are corrupt officials who had fled to Canada to avoid arrest. Chinese authorities have also expressed interest in the creation of an oil pipeline that extends to the West coast as well as the lifting of restrictions upon Chinese state investment on Canada’s oil sands.

As Reuters reported, the affair had undermined efforts by both countries to boost economic ties. Although China wants a free trade deal with Canada, many Canadians are reluctant to accept such a proposal in part due to Beijing’s human rights record.

This past June, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi lashed out at a Canadian reporter when she asked a question regarding Garratt and China’s record of human rights abuses.

Chinese authorities have long denied Garratt’s arrest was in retaliation for the Canadian arrest of a Chinese businessman on suspicion of stealing US fighter jet secrets. Su was extradited to the USA where he was sentenced to 46 months in prison。

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Kun Shan Chun, a naturalized US citizen also known as “Joey” who was born in China, admitted using his top secret clearance at the FBI to send sensitive and classified information to a Chinese official. Although Chun faces ten years in prison, the state and the defense have both agreed that a sentence of between 21 and 27 months “would be appropriate”.

The Department of Justice said Chun was introduced to a Chinese government official during a trip to Italy and France in 2011. He is accused of covering up his connections with at least one Chinese government official and a Chinese technology company in which he had an “indirect financial interest”.

Court papers show Chun had sent an unnamed Chinese official a chart showing the FBI’s organisational structure in 2013 and photos of restricted documents about surveillance technologies in 2015.

During one meeting with his Chinese associates, Chun is alleged to have told an undercover FBI special agent that he “expected a ‘cut’ of any payment that the [agent] received for providing information to the Chinese government.”

For providing this information to the Chinese government, Chun was rewarded with financial and travel benefits.

US Attorney Preet Bharara said he had threatened the country’s security through a “duplicitous” betrayal.

Chun “deeply regrets” his actions and loves the US, his lawyer said.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington has not yet commented on Chun’s case, the Associated Press reports.

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China is beefing up its defenses against foreign espionage, and they’re hoping to raise public awareness of this danger to national security with its first-ever National Security Education Day held last week.

As reported by China Law Translate, one of the propaganda materials released was called “Dangerous Love” that was seen in residential areas of Xicheng, Beijing.

The 16-panel cartoon follows the story of Xiaoli, a Chinese woman who works in an information department of the country’s civil service. Xiaoli is wooed by a foreigner named David who eventually convinces Xiaoli to hand over sensitive material. Police eventually confront Xiaoli with the revelation that David is in fact a spy, and that she herself is guilty of violating Chinese law regarding state secrets.

As with a number of recent Chinese propaganda releases, “Dangerous Love” uses cartoons as a way to make its content and intentions very clear to its readers.

As translated by China Law Translate, here’s the entire poster campaign:

(as seen above)
XIAOLI’s FRIEND: A foreign friend has organized a gathering tonight… You’re always trying to increase your foreign language level, why don’t you go with me?
XIAOLI: Sure.

DAVID: My name is David and I’m a visiting scholar researching issues about China. I’m really interested in chatting with all of you.

DAVID: Everybody please introduce yourself and say a little something about your work. Let’s start with this pretty lady.
XIAOLI: Oh, OK!

XIAOLI: I’m Xiao Li, I just tested into the civil service after graduating college and work in a foreign publicity (propaganda) department.
DAVID: OK

After that party, David began to meet with Xiao Li often and gave her gifts.
DAVID: You’re pretty, warm, and exceptional. To tell you the truth, I fell for you the first time I saw you.

XIAOLI (thinking to herself): Having a handsome, romantic and talented foreign boyfriend is pretty good!

The two begin a romantic involvement.
DAVID: My dear, what exactly do you do at your work?
XIAO LI: I write internal references as a basis for central policies.

DAVID: Great! Lend me those internal references so I can take a look. This will really help me write academic articles.
XIAO LI: I can’t, we have a confidentiality system.

DAVID: Dear, do you still need to keep secrets from me? I’m just taking a look to use in academic articles.
XIAO LI: Uhh, OK then.

XIAO LI: This is a copy I made, give it back as soon as you’re done.
DAVID: Don’t worry, sweetheart.

XIAOLI: What happened? David hasn’t called me recently, and his phone is always off.

OFFICER: Are you Xiao Li? We’re from the State Administration of National Security. Please come with us.
XIAO LI: What? What’s going on?

OFFICER: David is an overseas spy in China to steal political and military information, and we have already captured him. Did you provide him with these ‘internal references?’
XIAO LI: What?

XIAO LI: I didn’t know he was a spy, he used me!
OFFICER: You show a for a State employee. You are suspected of violating our nation’s law.

A warning from the National Security Organs. According to Chapter 1 on crimes endangering national security, article 111 of the Criminal Law of the P.R.C., whoever steals, secretly gathers, purchases, or illegally provides state secrets or intelligence for an organization, institution, or personnel outside the country is to be sentenced to not less than five years and not more than 10 years of fixed-term imprisonment; when circumstances are particularly serious, he is to be sentenced to not less than 10 years of fixed-term imprisonment, or a life sentence; and when circumstances are relatively minor, he is to be sentenced to not more than five years of fixed-term imprisonment, criminal detention, control, or deprivation of political rights.

Article 27 of Chapter IV of the Counter-Espionage Law provides that: where extraterritorial institutions, organizations or individuals carry out, or instigate or financially support others in carrying out espionage activities, or where an institution, organization or individual within the territory linked to a foreign institution, organization or individual conducts espionage activities, and it constitutes a crime, it is pursued for criminal responsibility in accordance with law.

National Security Education Day also saw the following video made by the national PSB in Beijing. The video is in the style of a cartoon that uses depictions of James Bond and Ethan Hunt from Mission: Impossible to illustrate what is and isn’t a spy (no English subtitles).

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At the end of October near the City of Baishi, a farmer named Yin Gangzheng was working in his field when he spotted a man acting suspiciously. Yin said the man was peering through a telescope as he looked around him to see if anyone was watching him. Not wanting to leave this to chance, Yin called in the Chinese border patrol who detained the man.

Upon searching the unidentified man, the border patrol discovered he had a foreign passport, a camera with photographs of Chinese military installations, and even a hand-drawn diagram of Chinese troop movements that was hidden in his underwear. The border patrol determined the man to have come to China to collect information on the Chinese military.

No specific charges have been announced so far.

Much of China’s shared border with North Korea is in Jilin, while the province also shares a small border with Russia.

Jilin had recently revealed a national anti-espionage hotline (12339) to which any Chinese citizen can call in to report a suspected spy. Meanwhile in nearby Liaoning, Canadian Christian missionaries Kevin and Julia Ann Garratt were both arrested on suspicion of stealing military secrets, for which the latter has been released on bail.

Jilin has been a center for international incidents that involve China’s neighbor and ally, North Korea.

Jilin’s ethnically-Korean city of Yanji saw the kidnapping of South Korean pastor Reverend Kim Dong-shik in 2000 as well as the detention of American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling in 2009. It also serves as a suspected gateway for illegal drugs like crystal meth.

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The new 12339 hotline was unveiled at the Jilin International Security Conference on November 1, and comes a year after the passing of an anti-espionage law. As reported by Global Times, participation by citizens in the hotline is “extremely necessary”. The hotline is a way for ordinary citizens to report espionage to state institutions. The targets are people who “steal, pry out, buy or otherwise illegally obtain state secrets or intelligence, or conspire, coerce or pay government employees to become traitors.”

Reports are expected to be “truthful and accurate”. False accusations will reportedly be met with penalties.

The anti-spy hotline comes at a time when there are increased reports of espionage in China. In May, two Japanese nationals were detained on suspicion of espionage as were two more in September and October, respectively. Canadian Christian missionaries Kevin and Julia Ann Garratt were both arrested on suspicion of stealing military secrets, for which the latter has been released on bail.

To explain how the process works, the Sinosphere blog of the New York Times called the hotline. They were told that to report a spy, “(T)ell us who he is, why you suspect him. We’ll write everything down and report it to our supervisors. They will investigate the matter and get back to you.”

As the hotline operator explained, a spy could either be Chinese or foreign, saying rather ambiguously, “Anyone can be a spy. And anyone can also not be a spy.”

While the hotline doesn’t give great advice as to what to look for in a potential spy, a list of suspicious “spy” traits to be on the look out for is circulating on WeChat. Here they are, as translated by Shanghaiist:

1) People with an unclear line of work, who work a number of jobs and are well-funded.

2) People who like to throw out controversial subjects at public gatherings in order to ignite debate and then quietly observe.

3) Overseas correspondents, missionary workers and some NGO members.

4) People who have a legitimate job according to their business card, but actually work irregular hours for a shell company or a new company.

5) Students with a wealth of study abroad experience that does not match with their age.

6) People who are particularly concerned with asking sensitive questions to those around them, not just limited to political, military, media and business.

7) People who regulary visit certain places to exchange goods or documents.

8) People who often participate in various seminars and business meetings and often throw out reactionary remarks and exaggerate the merits of foreigners.

While this anti-espionage hotline is the first of its kind, various Chinese provinces like Guangdong have been running anti-terrorism hotlines in which tipsters can win cash prizes for informing on potential terrorist activity. However, as confirmed by the 12339 hotline operator, there is no reward given for successfully informing on possible espionage activity.

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The founder of a private IT security firm called CrowdStrike, Dmitri Alperovitch, is making the allegations, saying that the information was taken from the hacked personal records of millions of government workers in cyber attacks against the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and the Anthem and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield health insurance networks.

“That can now be used to embarrass you publicly and force you to work for the Chinese government,” Alperovitch says. “It’s, in effect, a private version of Facebook with much more detail about your life than even Facebook has that the Chinese now have access to.”

Among the most sensitive information to be lost in the security breach comes from the Standard Form 86, a 127-page security clearance application that contains highly-detailed information on everything about an applicant down to his or her drug, criminal, and health history.

The scope of the “Chinese Facebook” is said to be so large that it can target friends, relatives, and even children of US government workers in order to achieve its objective.

“To try to get them to reveal some information about their parent’s work and use that, eventually, for espionage activities,” Alperovitch explained. “Information that has been collected about them may be used decades later.”

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Two suspects surnamed Wen and Wang are alleged to have been paid between 3,000 yuan ($480) and 4,000 yuan a month to provide information to a person identified only as “H,” who claimed to be a foreign journalist. Two other suspects were offered money to divulge classified state secrets.

Dubbed operation “Mine Sweep”,  the state security agency arrested four men on suspicion of selling information involving the research, testing, production and application of new high-tech weapons. They have also been accused of attempting to recruit other defense technicians into the spy network.

The four suspects reportedly worked at the same company, but did not know each other.

This isn’t the first time the internet has been used as a tool to sell Chinese secrets abroad. Last May, a Guangdong man was convicted of espionage and sentenced to ten years in prison for releasing state secrets he found on the Internet. The man accessed 13 highly classified documents ranked at the second-highest tier of secrecy in China, as well as 10 classified documents from the third tier.

According to a recent CCTV report, incidences of espionage are steadily increasing in China. The report quotes a counter-espionage officer from China’s Ministry of State Security who claims there are an increasing number of young Chinese men working for foreign spy agencies.

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The Chinese telecommunication giant has been long associated with allegations of espionage. In 2012, US companies were ordered by their government to not install Huawei equipment on telecom networks because it was thought to pose a risk to national security. In 2013, Huawei made an unceremonious exit from the US market after former CIA chief Michael Hayden publicly labeled the company “a significant security threat” and accused it of spying for the Chinese government.

That was years ago, but Huawei still hasn’t been able to shake the image of being a closed and secretive organization. A spectacular PR meltdown earlier this month might have made things worse.

On June 5, about 30 local and international members of the press were invited to tour Huawei’s headquarters in Shanghai when the tour was stopped just minutes after beginning. One of the group members raised the issue of national security that had doggedly hounded the company since the US banned it from government projects in 2012. Instead of answering the question, the tour was cancelled.

Reporters were told, “You should not write anything about Huawei in your reports,” nor to mention the name of Mr Hu, the tour guide. When it was pointed out the reporters were invited to the tour by Huawei, the overly honest answer showed Huawei to be anything but open and friendly. “We didn’t invite you,” said the PR person. “It was the government that invited you and now you should leave.”

Angus Grigg of the Financial Times was one of the reporters that were escorted in and out of the Huawei tour, and writes that the PR fiasco proves Huawei to be a “a paranoid and secretive organisation”. Grigg writes:

That Huawei, the world’s biggest telecommunications equipment provider, won’t answer this question in China proves firstly its PR is rubbish, but also that it feels no compunction to explain its structure or how it operates. Such a culture within a company trickles from the top down.

It also shows why the Abbott Government quickly killed off suggestions it might lift the ban on Huawei tendering for work on Australia’s National Broadband Network soon after it was elected. Despite all Huawei’s lobbying those murmurings have not been heard for at least a year.

Tech in Asia has another perspective on the matter:

The real problem, though, is one that Huawei shares with many other Chinese tech companies: a strong divide between its local PR team and its international PR team… The problem is that it’s virtually impossible to shoehorn journalists into only communicating with one team or the other. And when Chinese domestic PR teams have no idea how to deal with international journalists, the results can be ugly.

Huawei has its sights set on the global market, but still flounders in places like the US. Grigg notes that Huawei’s behavior is not indicative of all Chinese companies, noting that a tour of a pharmaceutical company was completely open and admitted to receiving multiple subsidies from the Chinese government. But then, not all Chinese companies have been accused of spying for the Chinese government.

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Pan Shengshen

Pan Shengshen, the former Vice Chairman of the Guangzhou Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), is being investigated by Chinese authorities for leaking classified information to the Japanese.

According to a report in CaoKao Xiaoxi, the investigation relates to Pan’s role as the Vice President and CEO of Hitachi Elevator Co. Ltd., a joint venture between the Japanese Hitachi Group, and China.

While leaking information about the elevator industry is hardly on par with say, the NSA leaks, it is noteworthy in that it marks the first occasion China’s anti-corruption campaign has reached beyond Chinese officials and state enterprise to a foreign owned company.

The report cites sources alleging that Pan used his executive position at the company to leak insider details about the Chinese elevator industry to the Japanese in exchange for kickbacks. Pan was the vice chairman of the Guangzhou CPPCC committee from 2007 to June 2014, during which time he was also a top executive at Hitachi.

Caixin noted that Pan holds duel Party membership to both the Communist Party and the China Democratic National Construction Association.

Li Tuo, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Taiwan newspaper, Want China Times, that the basis on which the Communist Party’s anti-graft watchdog is launching probes into non-Party civil servants was based on the “sixteen character guideline” of party cooperation, which specifies that parties must monitor one another.

Photos: Internet 

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China’s state broadcaster, China Central Television (CCTV), has reported detailed accounts of Chinese nationals arrested after being caught spying for foreign intelligence agencies.

The CCTV report did not specify how many civilians were arrested, or the foreign agencies they were allegedly working for. It did however include four Chinese nationals from Shandong, Hainan, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces that have been arrested this year for leaking military intelligence.

According to a counter-espionage officer from China’s Ministry of State Security, there is an increasing number of young Chinese men turning on their country to work for foreign spy agencies. Invariably, these “jobs” can be found on job-hunting websites by companies claiming to be consulting firms, research companies, and in one case, even a military magazine.

In April of this year, a Chinese man surnamed Cao was arrested in Qinghai, Shandong Province after he was caught spying at a navy base in the city and sending sensitive military information including photos of the base to a foreign “military magazine editor” the report said, citing an officer from Qingdao’s State Security Bureau. The editor also provided him with high-spec binoculars, cameras and other equipment in order to take high-resolution images of the base. Another three suspects from Anhui, Hainan and Zhejiang provinces were also arrested on the same charge, the report said.

The report states that these four are by no means isolated cases. In August, a Chinese graduate student, surnamed Chang, was arrested in Harbin for sending more than 100 classified intelligence documents over the course of two years to foreigners, China’s state agency Xinhua reported. The student was paid $32,000 by several foreign individuals. Another Guangdong resident was sentenced to 10 years for selling sensitive military information to a suspected spy named Feige, or flying brother in Chinese.

High-ranking officials have also been caught in the act. In September, the Chinese Ambassador to Iceland, Ma Jisheng, was arrested on suspicion of spying for Japan. In 2007, the Chinese Ambassador to South Korea was arrested for spying for Seoul.

In November, Chinese President Xi Jinping signed the new Counter Espionage Law, reaffirming the country’s commitment to root out foreign and domestic spies; all part of Xi’s “China Dream” narrative based on unity and patriotism. With an increasing number of Chinese willing to risk their lives spying for foreign intelligence, he certainly has his work cut out for him.

Photos: Reuters; insiberia  

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