A recent spy case shows how China has been able to pull off its whirlwind military modernization

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

A historic court decision sheds light on how China has used espionage to gain a military and economic advantage over the US and the rest of the world.

US counterintelligence officials managed to lure Yanjun Xu, a senior Chinese intelligence officer, out of China in 2018 and then get him extradited to the US to stand trial for attempting to steal advanced aircraft-engine technology, which China's military has struggled to develop.

This case is only the latest in a series of espionage operations by Beijing meant to steal industrial and military secrets from the US and its allies and partners and even from Russia — theft that has allowed China's military to rapidly build its arsenals of sophisticated weapons.

On November 5, a federal jury convicted Xu — deputy division director of the Sixth Bureau of the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security (MSS), the primary intelligence agency of the Chinese Communist Party — of "conspiring to and attempting to commit economic espionage and theft of trade secrets."

The Chinese intelligence officer was coordinating an operation to get access to a General Electric Aviation composite aircraft engine fan, a piece of technology no other firm has been able to reproduce.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/a-recent-spy-case-shows-how-china-has-been-able-to-pull-off-its-whirlwind-military-modernization/ar-AARMkAi

[zipplewrath]

1. They are not a "match" for us.

It's a complicated equation, but if China wanted to project their power outside of the China Sea, they are over matched. In a "shootin' war" they are vastly inferior. The problem really is if they get aggressive in their own sphere, i.e south east Asia and Taiwan. Then it becomes vastly more complicated. It's a bit like Russia and the Ukraine.

Here's the deal, we'd have to basically annihilate their navy if they got aggressive locally. We could do that, but it'd be a vast over reaction to what they were doing. It'd leave them honestly overly exposed to hostilities to their neighbors that'd love to take them down a notch. We could end up igniting a local war really for decades. The problem is that if we don't, we leave them with the capacity to harass their neighbors for decades. We really need China to understand that their options are limited and they need to consider them carefully. China is prone to understanding this, but only if the US is capable of communicating this in an effective and appropriate manner. This is why I'm glad Biden is president. Because his cabinet is the one who has a chance of communicating such a thing. Strangely, Biden's handling of Russia and the Ukraine right now may be the most important actions with respect to China and their long term ambitions.