Chinese officials have the itch to snitch

Wa Ex:
Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping’s heavy-handed rule is leading Chinese officials “unhappy with the trajectory” of their country to offer themselves as informants, an Australian spy chief has suggested.

“There’s a monoculture that’s being enforced,” Australian Secret Intelligence Service Director-General Paul Symon said on Tuesday during an event at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank. “We don’t yet know exactly how that will play out, but what we’re seeing is more and more signs of officials, individuals, interested in a relationship.”

That’s an optimistic signal for U.S. and allied intelligence agencies tasked with scrutinizing the regime after years of Western setbacks and high-profile Chinese Communist espionage successes. China has a reputation as one of the most difficult regimes for Western agencies to penetrate, but Beijing’s emergence as a truculent global heavyweight has put pressure on Australian officials to undertake more “daring” operations.

“The nature of the contest is changing in a way that our political parties, of either persuasion, will see the reality of what’s happening,” Symon said. “And I think that the demand signals for ASIS activities and operations will increase, not decrease.”

China gave U.S. and Australian leaders an unpleasant jolt last month when Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare announced the signing of a security agreement that reportedly would allow Beijing to “send police, armed police, military personnel and other law enforcement and armed forces to Solomon Islands to assist in maintaining social order.” That deal has stoked trans-Pacific anxiety that China eventually will acquire a naval base in the country, thereby allowing the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to target supply routes between Australia and the United States. more here