An illegal Chinese migrant was arrested in California after sneaking into a military base and refusing to leave, raising fears that Beijing spies are trying to infiltrate sensitive sites in the United States.
Border Patrol Agents headed to a Marine Corps base after an unidentified attack Chinese national ‘who entered the base (without) authorization’ also ‘ignored orders to leave.’
‘It was confirmed that the subject was in the country illegally. “The purpose and intent behind his actions are still being investigated,” Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino wrote on Friday.
This latest breach comes as the United States increasingly faces sensitive military bases infiltrated by the Chinese.
There have been more than 100 cases of Chinese nationals infiltrating US military bases in recent years.
According to a Wall Street Journal report last year, Chinese nationals posed as “tourists” and entered a missile launch site in New Mexico.
Others acted as divers to approach a rocket launch site in Florida, and another group claimed to be housed at an Army base in Alaska.
Border Patrol agents headed to the Marine Corps Base after an unnamed Chinese national “who entered the base (without) authorization” also “ignored orders to leave.”
Migrants who make up the ‘Viacrusis migrante’ walk in a caravan in the municipality of Villa Comatitlán in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, on March 28=7.
Fort Wainright in Alaska, the center of US military operations in the Arctic, was the target of an apparent espionage attempt, the Wall Street Journal reports.
A group of Chinese nationals were detained while diving near a row of missiles in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The agents have reportedly claimed to be tourists who are “lost” and can’t find their way to a Burger King or McDonalds that happens to coincide with a US military base.
Government officials say Chinese citizens are often “pressured into service” and required to report their findings to the Chinese government.
According to the report, the FBI, the Department of Defense and other agencies have been aware of the infiltrations and have held summits to address the problem.
The infiltration comes just months after the Chinese spy balloon crossed the United States. which authorities said had rudimentary flight controls, passed over several nuclear missile facilities in late January and early February.
The balloon was eventually shot down by an F-22 Raptor fighter off the coast of South Carolina.
President Joe Biden was criticized for downplaying the Chinese spy balloon that drifted across the United States, claiming Beijing may not have been aware of the operation.
Most captured Chinese citizens are cited, given small fines, and asked not to return, since illegal entry is generally not considered a federal crime.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in DC called the report “purely ill-intentioned fabrications.”
“We urge relevant US officials to abandon the Cold War mentality, end groundless accusations and do more things conducive to improving mutual trust between the two countries and friendship between the two peoples,” said Liu Pengyu. .
In what the Journal described as a “recent case,” a group of Chinese nationals claimed they were staying at a Holiday Inn located in Fort Wainright, Alaska.
Security at the base immediately became suspect because tourism in the area is extremely unusual. The base is home to the US Army’s 11th Airborne Division.
Emily Harding, a former Senate Select Committee on Intelligence official, told the WSJ that the Chinese spy operation is more of a numbers game.
‘The advantage the Chinese have is that they are willing to send large numbers of people to harvest. “If they catch some of them, it will be very difficult for the US government to prove anything beyond the invasion, and those who don’t get caught will probably take away something useful,” Harding said.
In 2019, three Chinese nationals were sentenced to prison for illegally taking photographs at a Florida Navy base.
Lyuyou Liao, 27, was sentenced to 12 months in prison after pleading guilty to trespassing at NAS Key West and taking photographs and videos of property at the station’s Truman Annex.
Members of the Mexican military ride alongside migrants as they walk toward the U.S. border in a caravan in Huixtla, Mexico, on March 27.
Migrants build their own international bridge at Gate 36 to enter the United States near Gate 36 on the North American side in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, on March 28.
President Joe Biden downplayed the Chinese spy balloon that crossed the United States in February, claiming Beijing may not have known about the operation.
Two others, Jielun Zhang, 25, and Yuhao Wang, 24, were sentenced to 12 months and nine months in prison, respectively, for entering the base in January 2019 and taking photographs of military and naval infrastructure.
The same year, a Chinese woman was sentenced to eight months in prison after entering then-President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property with electronic devices and two passports.
Also in 2019, two Chinese nationals were expelled from the United States after attempting to drive to Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia Beach, reported the Virginia pilot.