Final Word from Thursday, August 23, 2012
It's true, as Andor Šándor and others have pointed out, that the
2011 annual report from the BIS counterintelligence service
contains little new information. It mentions the usual links
between corrupt politicians and businessmen and devotes 600
words to the spy activities of the Russians, which is twice as
much space as last year. The Chinese, in contrast, get just one
short paragraph of 75 words, down from 100 last year and zero
in previous years. BIS particularly warns about third parties who
are Czech but represent Chinese interests in the background,
esp. in terms of buying technology and making investments. In
other words, BIS is saying that some Czechs are secretly working
for the Chinese. This sounds like important new information to
us. In its own way, this is even more dangerous than the Russian
variety of economic influence, where the involvement of a
foreign power is often easy to spot.[Czech Republic spies]
Glossary of difficult words
soft espionage - not a frequently used term, but used here to mean a form of espionage conducted through parties providing or seeming to provide a legitimate service;
third party - a person or group besides the two primarily involved in a situation.