China has accused Australian spies of operating in its country after the top Aussie spy boss accused Chinese spies of doing the same thing down under.
China’s Ministry of State Security hit back against ASIO director-general Mike Burgess’ claim that Chinese citizens were spying in Australia.
The statement was released by the Foreign Ministry’s official WeChat account and accused Australian intelligence agencies of making groundless accusations.
In July, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited China in an attempt to normalise relations with Beijing after several tense years.
However, a speech by Mr Burgess on July 31, in which he named China among the top three countries engaged in espionage against Australia, unsettled relations once more.”
Mr Burgess said ASIO had disrupted 24 ‘major espionage and foreign interference’ operations within the last three years alone.
‘Nation states are spying at unprecedented levels, with unprecedented sophistication,’ he said.
‘ASIO is seeing more Australians targeted – more aggressively – than ever before.’
China’s Ministry of State Security accused Australian agencies of spying within the country
The agency’s accusation was in retaliation against ASIO director-general Mike Burgess’ claim that Chinese citizens were doing the same in Australia
China’s Ministry of State Security accused Australia of painting itself as the ‘victim’ while its spies operated within the country.
‘Australian intelligence agencies advocated the “serious threat” posed by foreign espionage activities to Australia, and even packaged themselves as innocent “victims” in groundless accusations of “Chinese espionage threat”,’ the ministry said.
‘In recent years, China’s state security organs have successively cracked a number of espionage cases against China instigated by Australian intelligence agencies in accordance with the law, effectively safeguarding China’s sovereignty, security and development interests.’
Mr Burgess put the cost of espionage – including the theft of intellectual property resulting in lost revenue and responding to incidents – at $12.5billion in 2023/24.
This included cyber spies stealing nearly $2billion of trade secrets and intellectual property from Australian companies.
In particular, foreign agents had been targeting AUKUS and military technology secrets, he told a crowd in South Australia.
‘Hackers stealing commercially sensitive information from one Australian exporter gave a foreign country a leg up in a subsequent contract negotiation, ‘costing Australia hundreds of millions of dollars’, Mr Burgess said.
The director-general also revealed details of multiple espionage operations as he warned officials, businesses and the general public about interference threats and the impact of lax security.
Mr Burgess claimed China, Iran and Russia posed the biggest threat to Australia’s national intelligence
Australian Federal Police charged a Chinese national with reckless foreign interference early in August.
The woman was accused of being tasked by China to spy on a Canberra Buddhist group.
She was arrested under the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce and now faces a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment.
In 2022, Russian spies were deported after an ASIO investigation found they were recruiting proxies and agents to obtain sensitive information.
‘You would be genuinely shocked by the number and names of countries trying to steal our secrets’, Mr Burgess said.
‘In this year’s annual threat assessment, I called out these types of activities and put perpetrators on notice by stating, “we are watching, and we have zero tolerance”.
‘Anyone who thinks it is acceptable to monitor, intimidate and potentially repatriate members of our diaspora communities should never underestimate our capabilities and resolve.’
