China’s state security agency yesterday warned students with access to sensitive information against falling for “handsome men” or “beautiful women” who might entice them to spy for foreign powers.
The Chinese Ministry of State Security has promoted claims that foreign spies are working to lure loyal Chinese to betray their country — often in lurid and unusual ways — since opening a WeChat account last year.
It has warned that foreign spies “have countless disguises, and can even change their gender” and called on citizens to “build 1.4 billion lines of defense” against threats to the country.
Photo: REUTERS
Yesterday, it accused foreign intelligence agencies of deploying “romance traps” to lure Chinese students.
Foreign spies were using job ads and even online dating to “lure and coerce” young students, especially those with access to “sensitive scientific research data,” to hand over confidential information, it said.
“They may even disguise themselves as ‘handsome men’ or ‘beautiful women’ ... and drag young students into ‘romance trap,’” it said.
The ministry did not name which countries were behind the alleged scheme.
However, it warned that spies might be disguising themselves as university academics, scientific researchers or consultants, luring students short of cash in what it called “targeted infiltration.”
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
RSS