Straw Boats Borrowing Arrows: China’s Espionage Campaign | The American Spectator

In Mao Zedong’s 1957 speech “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People,” delivered at the Zhongnanhai’s Huairen Hall during the 11th Session of the Supreme State Conference, the ruthless chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party defined his country’s enemies as “all those social forces and social groups which resist the socialist revolution and are hostile to or sabotage socialist construction.” This expansive definition recently came to mind when the British Crown Prosecution Service unexpectedly withdrew its charges against two British men accused of spying for the Chinese government, on the grounds that the Official Secrets Act only covers the passing of useful secrets to an “enemy” state. Since no government witness proved willing to affirm that China represented a clear and present threat to British national security, the case necessarily collapsed.

The Chinese Communist Party would never allow itself to be hamstrung in such a fashion. Its criteria for enemy status, provided by Chairman Mao, is rather more extensive, its punishments for espionage swifter and more severe. Earlier this year, when a former engineer at a Chinese research institute by the name of Liu (his precise identity and professional affiliations have been kept secret) was accused of selling classified material to foreign agents, the death penalty was promptly imposed. “Desperadoes who want to take shortcuts to heaven,” the Ministry of State Security announced in its typically bumptious manner, “will all suffer consequences.” The asymmetry at work here may speak well of Britain’s commitment to the rule of law, due process, and careful statutory construction, but it bodes rather ill for its future as a global power. (RELATED: Some Dare Call It Treason)

His Majesty’s Government may view the People’s Republic of China as an economic partner first and a geopolitical rival second, but the Zhongnanhai evidently views Great Britain as a crumbling ruin ripe for looting. The Sceptered Isle now positively teems with Chinese spies and influence agents seeking to further the CCP’s political agenda. In 2022, MI5 named Christine Lee — a lawyer involved with the China Overseas Friendship Association and the British-Chinese Project, the recipient of a Points of Light award from Prime Minister Theresa May, and the holder of some sixteen different directorships — as an “agent of influence.” She had allegedly managed to build up a network of contacts across the British political scene, with which she carried out “political interference activities on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party” and the Chinese United Front Works Department influence agency. Lee sued MI5, seeking to clear her name, but her claims were dismissed by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, thereby upholding the MI5 interference alert.

Ms. Lee is hardly a lone wolf. Since her infiltration of Parliament was revealed, scarcely a day has gone by without some embarrassing revelation concerning the extent to which the tendrils of Chinese espionage have wrapped themselves around the length and breadth of the United Kingdom. In 2023, a parliamentary report concluded that China had already penetrated “every sector” of the British economy, and the following year, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) similarly determined that Chinese spies had infiltrated the U.K. Electoral Commission’s systems. The British have slowly been waking up to this mounting threat. The proposed Chinese super-embassy in the Tower Hill neighborhood of London has met with resistance on the grounds that the old Royal Mint Court site lies directly atop a number of sensitive fiber optic cable lines servicing key financial centers in the City of London and Canary Wharf. After a Chinese tracking device was discovered in a vehicle used by then-prime minister Rishi Sunak, cars and vans belonging to the Ministry of Defense’s “white fleet” now have to feature warnings to riders that MOD devices are NOT to be connected to vehicle and Avoid conversations above OFFICIAL within the vehicle, owing to the ubiquity of Chinese electric vehicles, electric engines, or GPS software. (RELATED: DOJ Cracking Down on CCP Espionage)

This sort of sophisticated cyber espionage is to be expected from a rising and increasingly militant power like China, and can usually be combatted by competent counter-intelligence and security agencies. What is more concerning is the effect of influence operations in the domestic sphere. Yet another China-related scandal has recently rocked Great Britain, when it was revealed that the Chinese government had engaged in a multi-year campaign of intimidation in order to force Sheffield Hallam University to quash research being conducted by Laura Murphy, a human rights professor, into the widespread use of Uyghur slave labor in Chinese industries. Professor Murphy was shocked to find that her employer had “negotiated directly with a foreign intelligence service to trade my academic freedom for access to the Chinese student market,” and was obliged to initiate legal action in order to resume her work. Meanwhile, Uyghur and Tibetan human rights activists, and pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong, have been subjected to harassment, intimidation, and surveillance by Chinese agents while on British soil, where they should by rights have found a safe harbor from communist repression. (RELATED: Digital Landmines: Beijing’s Quiet Invasion)

Chinese influence operations are undeniably becoming more effective. In a November 12, 2025, hearing at the German Bundestag’s Human Rights Committee, the Taiwanese legislator Puma Shen described the three levels of Chinese information manipulation:

At the high level, the Propaganda Department and other committees set key themes that are often observed through state media or officials’ Twitter (X) accounts. Low-level information manipulation occurs through trolls and patriots who spread low-end fake news through social media and bot networks. Finally, the most harmful form of direct manipulation is connected-level information operations, which involve China-controlled content farms spreading biased reports and conspiracy theories through organic channels.

Shen noted in particular the case of one of Taiwan’s top influencers, who “revealed in 2019 that he firmly rejected a multi-million NTD [New Taiwan dollar] offer to whitewash the CCP, but his stance gradually eroded over the next six years. By 2025, the former high-profile anti-China advocate had become a united front model, frequently visiting China, identifying as Chinese, and publicly supporting cross-strait unification.” Here we find China playing the long game. A popular Taiwanese influencer initially purports to oppose the CCP and the prospect of reunification, only to gradually align his views with his communist handlers, thereby making his ideological evolution appear organic, while receiving as much as 1.5 million yuan per month for the privilege. (RELATED: Trump and Meloni Outpace Critics on Human Rights)

There are influence operations at work in this country as well. We are all unfortunately familiar with the Fang Fang incident, in which an alleged Chinese intelligence operative targeted politicians, mainly in California, and most notoriously U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell, on behalf of China’s Ministry of State Security. More recently, we have seen Linda Sun, who served as Deputy Chief of Staff for New York Governor Kathy Hochul, accused of working as an undisclosed agent of the CCP, and insidiously using her position to obtain unauthorized official proclamations from the governor’s office, block Taiwanese officials from accessing the New York governor’s office, and align state messaging with CCP interests. (RELATED: How China Is Quietly Outsmarting the West)

These operations have taken place against what the U.S. Department of Justice has called “a backdrop of malign activity from the government of the People’s Republic of China that includes espionage, attempts to disrupt our justice system, harassment of individuals, and ongoing efforts to steal sensitive U.S. technology,” malign activity that is becoming increasingly brazen. Just a few days ago, the IndieChina Film Festival in New York City, organized by the filmmaker Zhu Rikun, was cancelled after Zhu and many of the contributors were subjected to a systematic campaign of intimidation. As Bitter Winter’s Hu Zimo reported,

Zhu’s ordeal began with a cryptic phone call from his father in China. “He just told me not to do anything bad for the country,” Zhu wrote. That vague admonition was the first tremor in a seismic crackdown. A colleague in Beijing was detained and told that Zhu would be prosecuted upon return. She was forced to relay the threat and confirm Zhu had received it. “Is this an attempt to launch an international ‘war’ against me?” Zhu asked, stunned…But the pressure didn’t stop at China’s borders. Filmmakers in the U.S., Europe, and Africa reported that their families back home were being harassed. Even moderators and forum guests—people with no direct ties to the films—found their relatives under scrutiny. “If I do not suspend this edition of the film festival,” Zhu wrote, “anyone involved…could potentially face threats or harassment.”

Just as there is something particularly appalling about pro-democracy Hong Kongers being given asylum in England, only to be pursued there by Chinese agents, there is something particularly disturbing about the inability of a prominent independent Chinese filmmaker to organize a film festival on American soil due to official Chinese interference. “Zhu Rikun’s story,” Hu Zimo concluded, “is about the audacity of a regime that believes it can dictate what the world sees and hears — even from thousands of miles away. It’s about the silencing of voices that dared to speak, and the terrifying reach of a government that punishes not just dissent, but the mere possibility of it.” (RELATED: House GOP Releases Report Highlighting Grave CCP Spy Threat)

China’s audacity can no longer be ignored. A prescient 2021 report published by the French Institut de Recherche Stratégique de l’École Militaire, on the subject of Chinese influence operations, warned that Beijing is

increasingly comfortable with infiltration and coercion: its influence operations have become considerably tougher in recent years and its methods are resembling more closely the ones employed by Moscow. This is a “Machiavellian turn” inasmuch as the Party-State now seems to believe that “it is much safer to be feared than to be loved,” in the words of Machiavelli in The Prince. This is a clear Russification of Chinese influence operations.

There are few more troubling words in the English language than “Russification,” making this a profoundly dangerous development. Chinese Wolf Warrior diplomats can be found loping across the globe, engaging in a confrontational and coercive new form of diplomacy. The Chinese Defense Department brazenly adopts the language of gangsters when addressing the Taiwanese people: “Sooner or later, we will come to get you! [早晚要来收了你们].” The pinned tweet of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson provides a positively unhinged warning for Japan, which has recently voiced its support for Taiwanese independence: “Your head will be split open in front of the great steel wall built with the flesh and blood of over 1.4 billion Chinese people, and you will be left covered in blood.” And yet our need for a market for our soybeans, or for access to rare earth compounds, is such that we must apparently countenance this contemptible behavior, even when the threat begins to materialize very close to home. (RELATED: China Ratchets Up Espionage War Against Taiwan)

Luo Guanzhong’s 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms tells of an incident involving the renowned military strategist Chancellor Zhuge Liang of the southwestern state of Shu, a figure some younger readers may recognize from the Japanese comedic reverse isekai manga series, anime series, and live-action television drama Ya Boy Kongming! It was Zhuge, commonly known by his courtesy name of Kongming, who addressed the Shu-Wu army’s pressing lack of ammunition with a clever ruse. A fleet of boats manned by skeleton crews, but filled with straw dummy soldiers, was sent into enemy territory. The scarecrows were riddled with arrows, and the boats returned to base with 100,000 bolts ready for use by the Shu-Wu archers. Hence, the old Chinese chengyu (set phrase or idiom) “straw boats borrowing arrows [草船借箭, cào chuán jie jian],” not dissimilar to the French saying “donner le bâton pour se faire batter [to give the stick to be beaten with],” or our  own notion of being “hoisted on one’s own petard.”

Ever since China initiated its post-Cultural Revolution period of “reform and opening up” under Deng Xiaoping, we have been doing everything in our power to fuel China’s rise. Meanwhile, we have remained dismissive of China’s global reach, with Vice President JD Vance summarizing Sino-American trade relations as “borrow[ing] money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.” And now, as Chinese vessels, warplanes, and drones are circling Taiwan, violating the sovereignty of Vietnam and the Philippines, and now even venturing into Japan’s Senkaku Islands, we must now, to paraphrase the ominous words of Proverbs 1:31, eat of the fruit of our own way, and be glutted on the schemes of an increasingly sinister enemy across the Pacific. China’s Machiavellian turn is hardly the behavior of a backwards peasantry, and the sooner we come to grips with the deranged rhetoric and bellicose posturing coming out of Beijing, the better it will be for our increasingly tenuous position in the Pacific and in the world.

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