China vs. the rest of the world: radars, spies and the intelligence battle

China is building new radar and electronic warfare facilities at Lake Mapam Yumco in the mountains of southwestern Tibet, along its long and disputed border with India. Expanding military infrastructure is part of the People’s Liberation Army’s strategy to enhance intelligence data gathering and electronic warfare capabilities. Meanwhile, scientists from the People’s Liberation Army Naval Aviation University and Yantai University in China boasted about developing a technology for intercepting and reading complex radar signatures of foreign armed forces using essential tools such as a laptop and a small antenna. The Chinese system is intended to turn the enemy’s weapons against themselves effectively and to be effective against slow-moving targets at sea.

Chinese authorities announced the arrest of a person accused of spying for the British foreign intelligence service MI6. It is the latest arrest in China’s security services’ campaign to stop foreign espionage. Great Britain is also increasingly reporting on the activities of Chinese intelligence. In the fall of 2023, the MI5 internal security service reported Chinese spies contacting over 20,000 people online in Great Britain. Meanwhile, in the United States, a Navy officer who pleaded guilty to passing confidential military information to Chinese intelligence has just been sentenced to more than two years in prison.