China’s top general accused of leaking secrets

We are not quite seeing the year of the spy (1985), but the last few years have seen more “spy” activity than I can ever remember.

1985 involved the United States and the Soviet Union. These more recent espionage cases involve China and the United States, the latest being a Chinese general accused of leaking secrets to the United States.

Year of the Spy

I have always been fascinated by this type of material, and have literally read dozens of books about the year of the spy to get every possible perspective on it.

Oddly enough, while 1985 was dubbed the year of the spy, the previous year had far more activity on this front.

There was also the arrest of Aldrich Ames (1994) and later the arrest of Robert Hansen (2001).

The spy game was relatively quiet after those arrests, but the Chinese have revived it again.

New spies

Fang Fang is probably the most famous of the recent cases for her involvement with Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA).

The Chinese operative embedded herself in his campaign operations, but was eventually tagged by our intelligence agencies, and Swalwell was warned about her.

We have also seen numerous penetrations of the Biden administration, including from Iran.

As of late, this has also calmed down, but a bombshell was just announced of a high-ranking Chinese general leaking secrets to the United States.

The leak

General Zhang Youxia, 75, first-ranked vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, has been removed from his position.

It was reported this week that he was suspected of leaking nuclear secrets to the United States and accepting bribes.

President Xi Jinping has been purging his military leadership as of late, seeing the highest turnover in decades.

It may not be as sexy as the spy game in the 1980s and 1990s, but the game is still clearly being played, only now it is the United States and China instead of the United States and Russia.