Chinese Gate-Crashers at U.S. Bases Spark Espionage Concerns

Washington has tracked about 100 incidents involving Chinese nationals trying to access American military and other installations

Updated Sept. 4, 2023 5:21 pm ET

WASHINGTON—Chinese nationals, sometimes posing as tourists, have accessed military bases and other sensitive sites in the U.S. as many as 100 times in recent years, according to U.S. officials, who describe the incidents as a potential espionage threat.

The Defense Department, FBI and other agencies held a review last year to try to limit these incidents, which involve people whom officials have dubbed gate-crashers because of their attempts—either by accident or intentionally—to get onto U.S. military bases and other installations without proper authorization. They range from Chinese nationals found crossing into a U.S. missile range in New Mexico to scuba divers swimming in murky waters near a U.S. government rocket-launch site in Florida.

The incidents, which U.S. officials describe as a form of espionage, appear designed to test security practices at U.S. military installations and other federal sites. The incidents that occurred in rural areas where there is little tourism typically involved Chinese nationals who were pressed into service and required to report back to the Chinese government, the report added, citing officials familiar with the practice.

Concern over the base intrusions comes amid rising U.S.-China tensions, which spiked after a Chinese balloon overflew the U.S. earlier this year carrying what officials said was surveillance equipment. The incidents also cast a light on concerns that Beijing is using nontraditional means to gather intelligence on U.S. soil, whether through proximity to bases or through Chinese-produced commercial equipment that could be used to spy.

Officials at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment, and the Pentagon only responded broadly to the issue. Government officials referred queries to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which said it wouldn’t comment on the issue.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington challenged the U.S. view of the incidents. “The relevant claims are purely ill-intentioned fabrications,” said Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson with the embassy. “We urge the relevant U.S. officials to abandon the Cold War mentality, stop groundless accusations, and do more things that are conducive to enhancing mutual trust between the two countries and friendship between the two peoples.”

The incidents are concerning enough that Congress might look at legislation on the issue, according to Rep. Jason Crow (D., Colo.). Crow, a member of the intelligence committee, said lawmakers are concerned that some of these cases fall between the cracks, because most trespassing laws are state and local, and not federal.

“We need to work closely with our state and local partners to train them and equip them,” he said. “Right now, they don’t know how to deal with it.”

Some incursions are benign, such as those involving people who say they are following Google Maps to direct them to the nearest McDonalds or Burger King, which happens to be on a nearby military base. Others appeared to be more troubling, people familiar with the review said.

Officials described incidents in which Chinese nationals say they have a reservation at an on-base hotel. In a recent case, a group of Chinese nationals claiming they were tourists, tried to push past guards at Fort Wainwright, Alaska, saying they had reservations at a commercial hotel on the base. The base is home to the Army’s 11th Airborne Division, which is focused on Arctic warfare. 1/2

https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/chinese-gate-crashers-at-u-s-bases-spark-espionage-concerns-cdef8187

>>19491475

These cases at times occur in rural areas where officials indicate there is little tourism far from a commercial airport. The individuals use what appears to be scripted language when confronted by security guards, according to officials familiar with the tactics. When stopped, the Chinese nationals say they are tourists and have lost their way.

The problem of low-level Chinese intelligence collection like this is well known in intelligence circles, said Emily Harding, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and a former deputy staff director at the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. It is a numbers game, she said.

“The advantage the Chinese have is they are willing to throw people at collection in large numbers,” she said. “If a few of them get caught, it will be very difficult for the U.S. government to prove anything beyond trespassing, and those who don’t get caught are likely to collect something useful.”

Harding said that because most incidents in the U.S. can be pursued only as trespassing, the Chinese government gives a collective shrug for those who do get caught. That would be unlikely if an American were to be caught inside China, she said.

“The latter is unlikely to get what we would consider a fair trial,” Harding added.

The base penetrations are considered a concerning and growing trend, U.S. military and other officials said.

In some cases, individuals did gain unauthorized access to a base, “often by speeding through security checkpoints,” said Sue Gough, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

“These individuals are often cited criminally, barred from future installation access and escorted off-base,” she said.

Gough declined to comment on any specific incidents, citing security concerns.

The Pentagon said it has conducted several base security reviews since 2018, some of them in concert with other agencies. A review done late last year focused on the physical security of the roughly 1,400 gates at the U.S. military’s bases, as well as other aspects of base security.

“The results of the reviews have and will continue to inform changes to the protective posture of our bases,” Gough said.

Every day, there are more than 10,000 “controlled turnarounds” of individuals who arrive at military-base gates. They are mostly drivers who are confused about where they are supposed to go, and are turned around without incident. Some of those warrant additional checks and some trigger an investigation. “The incidents are generally low-level, and so far none of them indicate espionage,” Gough said of those turnaround cases.

However, there are other incidents serious enough to raise concerns with U.S. officials. There are repeated cases in which Chinese nationals have been found taking pictures at a U.S. Army range, according to people familiar with the matter. They often start off at nearby White Sands National Park, where visitors like to barrel down the sand dunes on rented slides, but then leave that area and cross into the adjacent missile site, the officials said.

In some cases, the individuals have used drones to bolster their surveillance efforts.

There have been repeated incidents at an intelligence center based in Key West, Fla., starting some years ago, where Chinese nationals, saying they were tourists, were found swimming in the waters near the military facility and taking pictures, according to officials familiar with the matter.

In at least one instance, an incursion there resulted in arrests and prosecutions that were made public. In 2020, three Chinese citizens were sentenced to about a year in prison after pleading guilty to illegally entering the naval air station in Key West, and taking photos by either walking around the fence line and entering it from the beach, or driving in and ignoring orders to turn around.

In another incident, Chinese nationals appear to have been found scuba diving off Cape Canaveral, home to the Kennedy Space Center. The area is the launch site for spy satellites and other military missions. A spokesman for Homeland Security Investigations’s Tampa, Fla., field office said the incident was part of a continuing investigation and declined to comment further.

U.S. officials also describe incidents around the White House in which Chinese nationals posing as tourists leave the designated tour area to take pictures of the grounds, including communication. 2/2

https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/chinese-gate-crashers-at-u-s-bases-spark-espionage-concerns-cdef8187

>>19491485

Anon thinks it was Brokaw who interviewed Biden in the rotunda days after September 11th, 2001. And the way Biden spoke was sketchy AF. Even compared to all the other politicians interviewed in those days. Asked about what we know about the attacks Biden spoke of thin ice. Still gives anon chills thinking about it. And the video seems to have been scrubbed from the internet. If any anon has it please post it. The other really sketchy thing was the Statement by George Bush that America did not blink. Yet many in his administration seemed to be blinking morse code with their eyes on TV. Really spoopy. Reminds anon of that US POW that did that.

>>19491592

>https://www.c-span.org/video/?165936-1/us-foreign-policy

Thanks anon. Wow. The day before 9-11. No that's not it. This was an impromptu interview in the Capital Rotunda just a day or two after the attacks. No more than a week if memory serves. And, once again if memory serves me, it was Brokaw asking Biden about what the US knew about the attacks. Biden was like he knew but would not say. And it just seemed sinister to me. Thin ice is what he said. Remember that very clearly. They scrubbed it.

Texas ranchers 'DEFEAT' Chinese billionaire who bought swathes of neighboring land to build huge wind farm - but could Beijing maintain backdoor access?

Sun Guangxin owns 7 percent of all land in Val Verde County after buying more than 130,000 acres for an estimated $110million between 2016 and 2018

The billionaire, who has extensive ties to the Chinese state, sparked national security fears with a plan to build a wind farm that would plug into the grid

He is now thought to have sold the land following opposition from local ranchers, but there are concerns Sun has retained an interest in the property

By MILES DILWORTH IN VAL VERDE COUNTY, TEXAS, FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

UPDATED: 09:38 EDT, 4 September 2023

Texas ranchers are on the brink of booting out a Chinese billionaire who has bought more than 130,000 acres of farmland in the state, sparking fears over national security, DailyMail.com can reveal.

Sun Guangxin, who has extensive ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), paid an estimated $110million for swathes of Texan real estate between 2016 and 2018 in an unprecedented foreign land grab in the Lone Star State.

But DailyMail.com understands he has now sold the most controversial part of his portfolio, a 15,000-acre ranch that included plans for a 46-turbine wind farm, and is planning to offload the rest of his vast Texan empire.

Opponents of the wind farm claim it would provide the former Chinese military captain access to the state electric grid, presenting a potential risk to energy security given Sun's well-documented loyalty to the Chinese state.

The fight is far from over, however, with campaigners claiming ongoing dealings could allow the billionaire to retain an interest in the property, providing Beijing with a backdoor to critical state infrastructure.

DailyMail.com can also reveal that a report written by former CIA officials alleged Sun would likely be considered an agent of the Chinese state by US authorities due to his close ties with the CCP and its military - and that his proposed wind farm could present a threat to national security.

It claimed the site, which is a mere 30 miles from a major US Air Force base, would also provide espionage opportunities for Beijing.

When DailyMail.com visited Val Verde County, a wild and desolate stretch of terrain in West Texas where Sun has amassed his property empire, it found locals united in anger at how a potentially hostile foreign actor had ever been allowed to set up camp in the heart of their community.

'We're all red-blooded Americans,' Dallas Barrington, a Texan attorney and rancher, said. 'That means we believe in America - and that we stand up against enemies of the state.'

1/5

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12441595/Texas-ranchers-DEFEAT-Chinese-billionaire-bought-swathes-neighboring-land-build-huge-wind-farm-Beijing-maintain-backdoor-access.html

>>19491757

A battle for the heart of America

The fight for Val Verde County is being played out across the country.

Earlier this month, DailyMail.com revealed that Chinese-owned companies now own more than $2billion of US farmland, up from just $162million a decade ago.

It comes amid wider concerns over CCP infiltration into American society, which was thrown into sharp relief when a suspected Chinese spy balloon was shot down over the Atlantic coast.

The CCP has a stake in 383,935 acres of American agricultural land as of December 2021, according to the latest figures released by the US Department of Agriculture.

But an astonishing 34 percent of that is owned by Sun, 61, who has an estimated net worth of $2.9billion, thanks largely to his controlling stake in Guanghui Group, an energy, automotive and real estate firm based in his home province of Xinjiang.

Through Brazos Highlands and another group subsidiary, Harvest Texas LLC, Sun controls nearly 7 percent of all land in Val Verde County.

The working-class son of a shoemaker began his business career in the late 1980s when he opened a seafood restaurant and other entertainment ventures, including a karaoke bar, swimming pool and bowling alley in Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang.

He used these venues to wine and dine the officials who frequented them, according to Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang, a book by Georgetown professor James A. Millward.

Indeed, support of party officials has been crucial to his success, according to the intelligence report seen by DailyMail.com.

Sun established Guanghui Group in 1989 during the early years of privatization in China, when businessmen used political connections to gain access to state-owned enterprises.

This is likely how the firm gained access to the Chinese energy sector, the report claims.

But Sun's interest in the US could be gleaned from his westernized hobbies.

The energy mogul rides a Harley Davidson and is an avid basketball fan. He even owns the Xinjiang Flying Tigers, a Chinese Basketball Association team.

Sun is also a keen hunter and in 2006 spent more than $100,000 on a hunting trip to Tanzania, bringing back exotic trophies including a leopard, lion, elephant and cheetah, the intelligence officials said.

It is a blood sport he has since enjoyed at his sprawling hunting cabins in Texas.

2/5

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12441595/Texas-ranchers-DEFEAT-Chinese-billionaire-bought-swathes-neighboring-land-build-huge-wind-farm-Beijing-maintain-backdoor-access.html

>>19491757

>>19491768

A wild and dangerous place

Val Verde County, flanked by the Pecos and Devils Rivers, is home to around 50,000 people, the small town of Del Rio, and dozens of family-owned hunting ranches.

The conservation hotspot also provides a critical migratory corridor for monarch butterflies, bats, hundreds of bird species, and a growing number of black bears.

The Seven Oaks Ranch - named after the 400-year-old oak tree that towers over its three-bedroom living quarters - has been in the Walker family for three generations since 1934.

Brothers Wayne, 55, and Philip Walker, 51, inherited it when their father, Kelly, who passed away in 2020. Wayne and Dallas Barrington are co-managing directors.

Philip, who has won several awards for his conservation work alongside his brother, described Seven Oaks as 'one of the last wild and scenic areas in the state of Texas'.

'It can be dangerous, but it's also incredibly beautiful,' he said.

Far removed from civilization and home comforts, the ranch can be an inhospitable place.

Philip joked he had a hard enough time convincing his London-born wife to enjoy the eerie silence that comes from its remote location.

So, it is fair to say he and his family were stunned when they heard the neighboring property, Carma Ranch, had been bought by a Chinese billionaire in 2018.

But their ire was ignited when Sun, via his US company GH America, proposed a mammoth wind farm that would see 46 turbines, some up to 700 feet tall, tower over a landscape largely untouched by mankind.

Opposition to the Blue Hills Wind Development first formed along environmental lines.

Conservation groups, including The Nature Conservancy Texas, The Devils River Conservancy, Bat Conservation International and the North American Butterfly Association, lobbied against the plans, arguing it would ravage ecotourism and cause untold damage to migratory pathways of bats, birds and butterflies.

Unique among these natural treasures is Fern Cave at Monarch Ranch, a prehistoric geological formation home to the largest bat roost in the US.

Although no official count has been completed, the ranch manager, Doug Meyer, 31, estimates that several million Mexican free-tailed bats live in the cave, before flying out en masse to hunt every night in a spectacular vortex.

But Meyer fears the population could be 'decimated' by the turbines, which would stand directly in their flight paths.

The proposed 700-foot structures would dwarf even some of the biggest landmarks in the US, including the 554-foot Washington Monument.

James King, a local realtor who owns a ranch on the Pecos River and founded the Lower Pecos Landowners Group in opposition to the project, said: 'It's like, not only do they want to put it in my face, they want to stick it in my eye.'

3/5

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12441595/Texas-ranchers-DEFEAT-Chinese-billionaire-bought-swathes-neighboring-land-build-huge-wind-farm-Beijing-maintain-backdoor-access.html

>>19491757

>>19491768

>>19491772

A threat to national security

But it was fears over national security that jolted state politicians into action.

A privately-commissioned report written in 2019 by former intelligence officials, shared with DailyMail.com, suggested Sun's close ties to the CCP could provide Beijing an opportunity to leverage his business interests for national security objectives.

Indeed, Guanghui Group's website boasts of its resolute support for the party leadership and its work on 'party-building' among staff, for which it has received numerous awards, the report claims.

The firm states that it is guided by '[Chinese President] Xi Jinping Thought', while around half of its senior team are former CCP, People's Liberation Army (PLA) or government leaders, the former intelligence officials say.

Their report also raised concerns over the project's proximity to Laughlin Air Force Base, which is used to train US pilots, noting that spy cameras could be placed on top of the turbines to surveil the camp.

Sun's personal allegiance to the CCP was drilled into him during his nine years in the PLA, China's main military force, in which he saw active combat in the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese war and rose to the rank of captain, according to Millward's book.

Millward noted Sun 'intensified his cultivation' of political connections after he was 'accused of paying bribes' in 1993.

Sun opened a branch of the CCP within his own company and has employed many former army officers in top corporate positions, Millward wrote.

'This is not a normal Chinese conglomerate company trying to diversify its global business interest,' Wayne Walker told DailyMail.com.

'This is a former Chinese military captain who came in and bought 130,000 acres of land very near our border, and within, you know, a few dozen miles of an Air Force base.'

It is not known whether action was taken based on the intelligence report, but Texas Governor Greg Abbott certainly appeared to share its concerns.

In 2021, he signed the Lone Star Infrastructure Act, which prevented firms associated with 'hostile nations', including China, from accessing the state infrastructure.

4/5

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12441595/Texas-ranchers-DEFEAT-Chinese-billionaire-bought-swathes-neighboring-land-build-huge-wind-farm-Beijing-maintain-backdoor-access.html

>>19491757

>>19491768

>>19491772

>>19491780

Has the sun set over Texas?

But if locals thought that was the end of the matter, they were sadly mistaken.

Around eight months after the bill was signed, GH America sold the rights to develop the wind farm to Babcock & Wilcox, an energy firm based in Ohio, for $11million, according to an asset purchase agreement seen by DailyMail.com.

The deal included the option to buy the underlying land for $22million.

The US firm never did, however, and the rights were instead sold onto Spanish energy firm Greenalia in June last year.

The deal was worth $15million, Forbes reported, meaning Babcock & Wilcox may have made $4million profit in just five months.

The same report suggested Greenalia had not yet exercised its option to buy the land itself for a further $22million, meaning the development of the wind farm would still be in breach of the Lone Star Infrastructure Act.

By maintaining ownership of the land the project is situated on, the Chinese would still have access to and control of the site.

However, DailyMail.com has seen a deed dated July 20 indicating that GH America has now sold the land to Greenalia.

But realtors such as King and others suggested the Spaniards grossly overpaid and are at a loss to explain why it would pay such a sum.

'That's the million dollar question,' Wayne Walker said. 'If it doesn't make sense, there's got to be something else going on here.'

Several sources suggested Sun may have struck a similar deal to the one he sealed at his luxurious headquarters, Morning Star Ranch, where he still collects royalties from a wind farm run by French firm Akuo Energy.

Greenalia said it could not comment on the deals struck with GH America due to confidentiality agreements, but a spokesman added its work on the Blue Hills project would 'comply with all legal and environmental requirements and take into account 'the different sensitivities existing in the territory'.

GH America did not respond when contacted by DailyMail.com.

The uncertainty threatens to overshadow what could mark a significant victory for Val Verde County ranchers.

But whether Chinese, Spanish, or American owned, they remain staunchly opposed to the idea of a wind farm in Val Verde County on environmental grounds.

Conservationists insist that while they support renewable energy solutions, there are other, more suitable locations available than the one proposed for Blue Hills.

Wayne Walker, himself a wind developer, said it was 'not a conventional NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) argument', because Blue Hills was simply 'a bad project'.

The fear is that if it appears Chinese interest in the wind farm has been withdrawn, the political will to stop the development will also fade.

'This is the essence of Texas,' Barrington said, looking out to a full moon rising over the border fence separating Seven Oaks, Cole and Carma Ranch, as the Texan sun set behind him. 'The question is: do we keep it, or do we destroy it?'

5/5

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12441595/Texas-ranchers-DEFEAT-Chinese-billionaire-bought-swathes-neighboring-land-build-huge-wind-farm-Beijing-maintain-backdoor-access.html

>>19491807

>In reality, all the real anons know I’m doing what we set out to do, become the news

you

are

delusional

>>19492100

>>19492100

>its fucking annoying

>irritated by them

feel the same way about you posting 31 times this bred

>>19492148

>Most bakers are identifiable by the memes and avatars they post.

a few years ago that was not the case

>>19492174

>I'm so confused now.

That's the whole point anon. If you were not confused you would just go ok and move on.