Nvidia scandal raises new concerns about scale of Chinese spying

Resumen detallado

China’s espionage efforts are intensifying in its backyard as Beijing continues to expand its military footprint in the South China Sea.

Singapore: The Jensen Huang saga is the latest example of what governments around the world say is a broad push by China to steal commercial and technological secrets and gather intelligence on foreign leaders and military plans.

The revelation that Nvidia’s now ex-CEO had an affair with a woman suspected of spying for China has rocked the US artificial intelligence boom and thrust allegations that Beijing is seeking to infiltrate Western tech giants into public view. It fits into what foreign officials say is a globe-spanning project.

In Germany, prosecutors allege a married couple posing as interpreters and car industry employees cultivated professors in AI, computer science and aerospace, drawing some to China for paid “civilian” lectures delivered to state arms companies. New Zealand intelligence says a Chinese observatory with close government ties tried to install space-tracking equipment through a local company – gear that could also collect military intelligence. Taiwan says Chinese operatives trawl social media for indebted soldiers, offer loans, then press them for secrets and introductions to colleagues.

Security agencies around the world have raised the alarm. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) calls Chinese espionage “a grave threat to the economic well-being” of the US. Britain’s MI5 said it was running seven times as many China-related investigations in 2022 as four years earlier. Canadian intelligence calls China its “greatest counter-intelligence threat”, while Dutch intelligence says Chinese digital espionage against technology companies is happening on a “large scale”.

Beijing has dismissed the Huang espionage allegations as a smear, accusing Washington of fabricating “Chinese spy narratives” to justify restrictions on technology exports. Despite those denials, the suspected spy at the centre of the scandal that toppled Huang is now in China with the knowledge of the Chinese government.

At stake is the balance of power between the world’s two…

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