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China’s New York consulate major spy centre, says Pompeo

Chinese consulates across the US are hotbeds of spying, the State Department alleges.

Staff Writers
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The US has asserted that Chinese consulates in more than 20 US cities are aiding undercover Communist Party operatives posing as students to engage in spying. Photo: Pexels
The US has asserted that Chinese consulates in more than 20 US cities are aiding undercover Communist Party operatives posing as students to engage in spying. Photo: Pexels

China’s New York City consulate is being used as a major hub for Beijing’s spying activities, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told The New York Post after a New York Police Department (NYPD) police officer was arrested and charged with spying for the Chinese government.

It’s likely more diplomats and agents will be arrested, Pompeo told the newspaper on Wednesday.

The State Department has asserted that Chinese consulates in more than 20 US cities are aiding undercover Communist Party operatives posing as students to engage in spying.

The US shut down the Chinese consulate in Houston in July, after two staffers there were charged with trying to steal Covid-19 vaccine research.

The Chinese consulate in San Francisco has long been accused of trying to steal trade and technology secrets from nearby Silicon Valley.

The New York consulate stands accused of collecting information on the city’s Uighur and Chinese dissident groups.

The US government has recently been ramping up its rhetoric on China as Beijing faces intense international scrutiny for covering up the origins of Covid-19, stealing American intellectual property, and detaining minority groups such as the indigenous Uighurs.

New York Post reporters are trying to reach the New York City Chinese consulate for comment, without immediate success.