FBI targets ‘Linda Suns’: Is Chinese infiltration threatening US politics and trust?
Commentator Qinglian He takes a look at the recent cases of Americans being accused of spying for China, and compares it to what happened in the Cold War era. Is history repeating itself?
China-US relations are becoming more complex, with several Chinese spies getting caught, such as dissident Tang Yuanjun and Linda Sun, a former aide to New York governors. Even those least attuned to these issues can see that these developments suggest a worsening China-US relationship.
However, those familiar with US’s diplomatic history since WWII would recognise a clear pattern in China-US relations, as it closely mirrors the trajectory of US-Soviet relations — from their alliance during WWII to the Cold War.
Precedent: Soviet spies in the heart of the US
When major powers interact, especially during periods of friendly relations, espionage — including the use of informants — is almost customary. For example, the US only formally established full diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union 16 years after the October Revolution, despite being allies during WWII.
After WWII, Soviet influence extended into eastern Europe, prompting Western nations — especially the US — to worry about the impact on their interests. They began to compete for international influence by positioning themselves ideologically opposed to the Soviets. This extended conflict, characterised by geopolitical, ideological and economic competition, spanned from around 1947 until the collapse of the Soviet Union on 26 December 1991. This era is historically known as the Cold War.
In retrospect, people often remember the US and Soviet Union primarily as adversaries during the Cold War, overlooking their close cooperation as allies during WWII. The US provided substantial support to the Soviets through the Lend-Lease Act, supplying a large amount of weapons, ships, planes, motor vehicles, war resources and food. Data shows that the western hemisphere delivered approximately 17.5 million tons of military equipment, vehicles, industrial supplies and food to the Soviets, with 94% of this aid coming from the US.
... many Americans became Soviet spies due to their ideological leanings, the most famous of whom was J. Robert Oppenheimer, known as the father of the atomic bomb.
Even fewer know about the cultural exchanges between the US and the Soviet Union during their time as allies. In 1942, the American-Russian Cultural Association was founded in the US to encourage cultural exchange between the Soviet Union and the US.
Studies of Cold War history recounted interesting anecdotes about student exchanges between the two nations; Soviet students sent to study in the US often focused on nuclear physics and other scientific fields, while American students visiting the Soviet Union were particularly interested in Soviet literature, history and Marxism.
That is to say, during this period, many Americans became Soviet spies due to their ideological leanings, the most famous of whom was J. Robert Oppenheimer, known as the father of the atomic bomb. Christopher Nolan’s 2023 biopic Oppenheimer, which featured a series of government hearings with a mind-boggling array of scientists, political figures and suspected Soviet agents, was not a product of the scriptwriters’ imagination, but a portrayal of historical events of the time.
Another notable Soviet spy was Harry Dexter White, a former Assistant Secretary for the US Treasury. Many are familiar with the US-led post-WWII international financial system — the Bretton Woods system — and are also aware of institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Yet few realise that White played a crucial role in the creation of this system, and fewer realise that at the Bretton Woods Conference, White was the chief architect of both the IMF and the World Bank. The US did not highlight this fact because White was an ardent admirer of the Soviet socialist system, and was a Soviet spy through and through. The US Treasury’s Office of Financial Research, which White headed, was where numerous communist sympathisers congregated, with White (along with Virginius Frank Coe, Harold Glasser, Irving Kaplan and Victor Perlo) pegged by the FBI as Soviet spies.
One can say that McCarthyism cleared up all espionage activities in one go during the period of alliance between the Soviet Union and the US. This is in line with how China-US relations evolved from strategic partnership to all-out competition.
Bitterness after the sweetness
During the first term of the Obama administration, relations between China and the US warmed up. Following the inaugural China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue in July 2009, China-US relations were upgraded from economic partner during the Bush administration to strategic partner, while the ten-year visa for Chinese visitors to the US was also issued during the Obama administration.
Coincidentally, China’s Thousand Talents Plan was launched in December 2008. According to the People’s Daily, by 2013, the programme had recruited over 4,180 high-level innovation and entrepreneurship talents in ten batches, including more than 1,400 professors from prestigious foreign universities. This number surpasses the total number recruited from 1978 to 2008, including 50 academics from developed countries.
Participants in the programme mainly come from renowned universities, research institutions and multinational enterprises in countries with advanced scientific education, such as the US, UK, Germany, Japan and Canada, with around 90% coming from the US.
Among these talents, the technology innovators are mostly at the forefront of research globally, while the technology entrepreneurs often hold mature transfer and relatively advanced commercialised technological capabilities, proprietary patents or have rich experience in the management of multinational enterprises.
According to incomplete statistics, in the past six years, there were at least 255 scientists (mostly Chinese) who were deemed to not have disclosed their “overlapping funds or research” in China, or to have violated other regulations.
It is worth noting that despite the high-profile nature of the Thousand Talents Plan, the US and other countries did not seem to oppose it. But when Trump assumed office, the fate of the programme took a turn. In 2018, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) officially launched the China Initiative, and many participants of the Thousand Talents Program were questioned by the FBI. Most who were interviewed were Chinese-American scientists, along with a few Americans, with the most well-known case being that of Harvard professor Charles Lieber.
In March, the University of Michigan hosted a forum on “The China Initiative and its Aftermath”, with the participants sharing their experience, insight and lesser-known facts. Under the initiative, the US’s National Institutes of Health began investigations into whether academic staff were using federal funds correctly, including whether these funds were used for work conducted in China.
According to incomplete statistics, in the past six years, there were at least 255 scientists (mostly Chinese) who were deemed to not have disclosed their “overlapping funds or research” in China, or to have violated other regulations. While the legal outcome of the investigations only led to two charges and three indictments, 112 scientists lost their jobs as a result.
Among the Chinese scientists investigated by the FBI, two accomplished scientists took their own lives. One was Stanford physics professor Zhang Shoucheng, often called “the person closest to a Nobel Prize in Physics”. Another was Wu Ying, professor at Northwestern University and prominent neuroscientist, who took her own life on 10 July 2024. She was highly acclaimed for her outstanding contributions in the field of RNA splicing biology and neurodegenerative disease research.
When China and the US were partners, these “Linda Suns” were an important resource when it came to building bridges due to their connections with the Chinese government.
This initiative sparked fear in scientists and ignited intense backlash from academic circles in the US. On 23 February 2022, under pressure from the scientific community, the DOJ announced the end of the China Initiative.
Clearing up of legacies at the state-level government
As of 2021, there were a total of 284 China-US “sister states ” and “sister cities”, including New York, which became sister cities with Beijing in 1980 and sister states with Jiangsu in 1989, and is dubbed the “gateway to the US”. New York is also a key area for the CCP’s united front work in the US.
Mike Pompeo — secretary of state during the Trump administration — was especially concerned with the Chinese infiltration into the US. He once pointed out that China’s infiltration had already reached deep into state-level politics. Pompeo was invited to the National Governors Association 2020 Winter Meeting; back then, US governors all felt that China’s economy was especially prosperous, and wanted to step up on connections with China and develop economic and trade relations.
Pompeo warned in his speech that “the Chinese Government has been methodical in the way it’s analysed our system, our very open system, one that we’re deeply proud of. It’s assessed our vulnerabilities, and it’s decided to exploit our freedoms to gain advantage over us at the federal level, the state level, and the local level”.
The establishment of 284 sister states and cities certainly involved the efforts of Chinese like Linda Sun. When China and the US were partners, these “Linda Suns” were an important resource when it came to building bridges due to their connections with the Chinese government. But with the relationship now an all-out contentious one — even being perceived as a pre-Cold War phase — the US, out of considerations of its national security, would naturally need to clear up the legacies left behind from their time as strategic partners.
New York naturally is a focus for the clearing up. In the last four years, just within Chinese-concentrated Brooklyn, there were over 12 such cases which involved more than 90 people.
The FBI have their eyes on “Linda Suns” precisely because the Chinese operational model of covertly infiltrating local US governments is seen as a fundamental threat to US politics and a direct erosion of national trust. The DOJ’s recent wave of charges has focused on individuals acting as “China proxies” — those with American citizenship but are pushing Beijing’s interests.
New York naturally is a focus for the clearing up. In the last four years, just within Chinese-concentrated Brooklyn, there were over 12 such cases which involved more than 90 people.
What was different in the US-Soviet espionage war was that the identities of the Soviet spies were hidden. Many — including Oppenheimer — never admitted that they were spies for the USSR. But for those from China’s Thousand Talents Plan and the various “Linda Suns”, their relations with China are openly known.
During the Obama administration, as well as a few previous administrations before him, those with connections and resources in China were all highly favoured people when it came to US diplomacy towards China. Not only was the “double-dipping” of those people legal then, but it was also something prestigious.
This article was first published in Lianhe Zaobao as “清理“中美合作”遺產 美國諜影幢幢”.
