Espionage

U.K. Removes China from Sizewell C Nuclear Plant as Tensions Grow
London has stripped Chinese firm CGN of its stake in the nuclear plant. British lawmakers were visiting Taiwan and China’s London ambassador was summoned over the alleged assault of a BBC reporter as tensions mount.
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Germany Did Research with North Korea -- Despite UN Sanctions
Kim Jong Un wants to modernize his nuclear weapons. To stop him, the UN has banned research collaboration with North Korea. One Berlin institute continued to collaborate with North Korea on research projects — without flagging the risks.
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“Safeguarding Science” Toolkit to Help U.S. Research Enterprise Guard Against Threats
The National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) and its partners announced a unique collaboration between elements of the U.S. intelligence and scientific communities to help the U.S. research enterprise mitigate the broad spectrum of risk it faces from nation-state, criminal, and other threat actors.
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Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald?
Fifty-nine years ago yesterday, 22 November, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. The shooter, Lee Harvey Oswald, was himself killed two days later in a Dallas police station by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner. A new book by Paul Gregory, a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, recounts the author’s experiences knowing Oswald.
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American Investor Known for Russian Nightclub Died of “Blunt Force Injuries” Due to Fall
An American stockbroker who made a fortune in the Russian market in the 1990s and 2000s and later co-founded a posh Moscow nightclub before leaving the country died of blunt force injuries suffered as a result of a fall from a Washington, D.C. building.
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Germany’s China Policy: Has It Learned from Its Dependency on Russia?
The German economy remains heavily dependent on China, its largest trading partner, despite mounting geopolitical tensions between the West and Beijing.
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FBI Says It has ‘National Security Concerns’ About TikTok
FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday that the bureau has “national security concerns” about popular short-form video hosting app TikTok. The FBI’s concerns about TikTok include “the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users.”
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Three Charged with Giving Secrets to China, and Selling DOD Chinese-Origin Rare Earth Magnets
DOJ charged three residents of Kentucky and Indiana with sending technical military data drawings to China, and then unlawfully supplying the U.S. Department of Defense with Chinese-origin rare earth magnets for aviation systems and military items.
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How Foreign Intelligence Services Compromise, Exploit U.S. Technology
Foreign intelligence services have intensified their efforts to compromise or exploit U.S. technology. A new report analyzes foreign collection attempts to obtain unauthorized access to sensitive or classified information and technology.
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Reports of China's Overseas 'Police Stations' Spark Controversy
Recent allegations of China operating 54 overseas “police stations” to pressure its citizens — including dissidents — to return home have sparked controversy and led to a number of investigations into their activities across Europe and North America.
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German Ministry Seeks to Block Chinese Chip Factory Takeover
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck wants to stop the sale of a chip production plant to a Chinese investor. The Green Party politician has expressed concern about giving China control over key infrastructure.
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How China’s Military Plugs into the Global Space Sector
China is using seemingly civilian and academic Chinese research institutions to advance its military goals in space. International organizations like the International GNSS Service need to be aware that even overtly civilian entities can be intertwined with the Chinese military. Collaboration with high-risk Chinese institutions must be done with extreme care to ensure data and products intended to support international science and commerce are not redirected towards unwanted military uses.
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U.S. Charges Chinese Spies in Huawei case
Prosecutors allege that Chinese spies were foiled by a double agent. The U.S. Justice Department says China is trying to undermine the U.S. judicial system.
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Russia Working Hard to Acquire Sensitive Western Military Technology
Russia has struggled for years, if not decades, to acquire sensitive Western technology and military hardware: everything from night-vision goggles for soldiers to powerful computer chips for advanced fighter jets. How successful the effort has been is an open question, but according to news reports and military analysts, sensitive Western technologies are widely employed in Russian weaponry and military equipment.
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Washington Raises Stakes in War on Chinese Technology
The Biden administration is expanding its list of technology-focused sanctions on China, drawing parallels to U.S. controls targeting the Soviet Union during the Cold War – and the new U.S. sanctions are in some ways more restrictive than Cold-War era controls.
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