FBI Charges 5 Chinese With Spying on U.S. Military — AFTER They’re Out of Custody

The Federal Bureau of Investigation certainly appears to know how to target Trump supporters in the run-up to November’s election. It’s also adept at launching shock-and-awe, pre-dawn raids on the residences of harmless, wizened, elderly men (Roger Stone). But what of protecting the homeland from spies working for our main geopolitical adversary?

Not so much, critics may say.

A case in point is a story about how the FBI has brought charges against five Chinese nationals who were apparently spying near a U.S. military base in Michigan. The problem?

They waited until the quintet was out of custody before taking action.

Of course, it’s not as if the case shouldn’t have been a priority. PDS (Putin Derangement Syndrome) aside, China is the nation that could knock the U.S. off its world-hegemon perch. Chinese spies are also a known problem. In 2020, it emerged that Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) had invited into his midst a Beijing spy named Fang Fang. (He’s accused of having had an affair with the attractive Mata Hari, too.) And just last month we learned that Governor Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) had a Chinese spy working in her office. Hochul said that she was “absolutely shocked.” But why?

In 2017, Beijing enacted its “National Intelligence Law.” This measure essentially requires every Chinese citizen or entity to spy for the government when asked.

Fang Fang? China’s Fangs Are Everywhere

Newsweek reports on the current story, writing:

On Wednesday, the FBI announced the charges against the five Chinese nationals who were students at the University of Michigan at the time of the incident in August 2023. The five individuals were allegedly caught near a military site in Michigan at night, where drills were taking place.

The five individuals are not facing charges for the events at Camp Grayling in August 2023. Instead, a federal criminal complaint accuses them of lying to investigators about the trip and conspiring to delete photos from their phones.

In a court filing on Tuesday, the FBI pointed out that there have been previous cases involving Chinese college students photographing critical U.S. defense sites.

… “The defendants are not in custody. Should they come into contact with U.S. authorities, they will be arrested and face these charges,” Gina Balaya, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit, said on Wednesday.

And what are the chances they’ll “come into contact with U.S. authorities”? Probably less than the odds the illegals the Harris-Biden administration releases into the U.S. will appear for their court dates.

Red Flags From Red China

As for more details on the story, The Associated Press informs:

In summer 2023, the five were confronted after midnight near a lake by a sergeant major with the Utah National Guard. One said, “We are media [which already should raise suspicion!],” before they collected their belongings and agreed to leave the area, the FBI said.

The FBI learned that the men had booked a room at a nearby motel a week before they were spotted outside Camp Grayling, 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Detroit.

Four months later, one of the men was interviewed by border officers at the Detroit airport before traveling to South Korea and China. He told investigators that he and others had taken a trip to northern Michigan “to see shooting stars,” the FBI said.

Well, yes, that would require a visit to the U.S., as in China, they shoot dissidents, not stars. But in light of this explanation — and one offered by the aforementioned Fang Fang — perhaps authorities ought to identify a new red flag: Beijingsplainin’.

As for Fang Fang, she had relations with multiple American politicians, and at least one incident was recorded via surveillance. She was having sex with an Ohio mayor, when he asked why she was into him. She, the New York Post related at the time, “allegedly replied that she needed to improve her English.” Yes, well, that is more believable than, “because all you male American pols have Adonis-like bodies and Hollywood looks.”

Unfathomable

Humor aside, this is no laughing matter. In fact, our pseudo-elites are so self-destructive that many wonder what explains their behavior: stupidity or malice (or both)? For example, commentator Olivia Murray theorizes about a very dark motive. “They’re deliberately facilitating China’s aggression,” she suggests as a possibility, and are “acting as saboteurs and orchestrating a situation in which the U.S. is at a major disadvantage.”

Note: A more likely explanation lies in these pseudo-elites’ lack of patriotism and prioritization of power and pocketbook. To paraphrase Upton Sinclair, “It’s difficult to get a man to understand something when his income depends upon his not understanding it.” Now, realize here that these pseudo-elites make great money off China. Consequently, their motivation to rationalize the Beijing danger away is profound.

Returning to Murray, she later writes:

Here are a few friendly reminders to close: Chinese agents were found to be operating a dangerous and unregistered biolaboratory in March of 2023… right near another “vital” defense site in California, Naval Air Station Lemoore. (See Andrea Widburg’s commentary on that event here.) The Chinese Communist Party also had/has(?) a network of illegal “police” stations in the U.S., hauling dissidents and defectors back to the motherland for punishment. Chinese nationals are surging across our border, and “Chinese military companies” are lobbying what’s ostensibly our Congress to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.

There’s more, too. China, infamous for stilling its own citizens’ tongues, actually succeeds in censoring our movies here in the U.S. (Yes, really. Click here and here for details.) Beijing also inserts its propaganda into our schools, through de facto bribery, via its “Confucius Institute.” In addition, it bullies our businesses into doing its bidding. The Chinese call such strategies the projection of “soft power.”

And it all works because we’re governed by soft heads who, enabled by soft voters, make us a soft target.