More prosaic but more productive are the UKUSA ground stations scattered around the world that listen in on a wide variety of communications, whether carried over international telephone lines or high-frequency diplomatic links.Ī significant amount of international telephone traffic is carried by satellites like the Intelsats that hang 22,300 miles above the worlds oceans and every day relay millions of telephone calls, faxes, e-mails as well as raw computer data. embassies overseas, including the one in Beijing, are often mini-spy stations, equipped with antennas that can grab short-range communications in capital cities. Since every major embassy gets telexes and other communications related to issues beyond its host nations borders, a spy master whether in Washington or Canberra wants to intercept as much traffic as he or she can. In Canberra, Australia, four years ago, a newspaper broke the story of how the new Chinese embassy in the Australian capital had been bugged during its construction, making the building itself a large and very effective bug. A fake tree branch was used to gather important information from Chinas embassy in Washington. The bugs used to intercept Chinese communications can be as simple as a phony fiberglass tree branch a stick that is actually a microphone or as complicated as a $500 million spy satellite.
In effect, the United States and its allies in the spy game have set up a shadow worldwide telecommunications network used purely for espionage, and these days China is target No. The technical expertise and the geographic spread of the five nations have permitted them to establish a network of spy posts that grew into an awesome spy machine during the Cold War and one that continues today. The key to understanding Americas ability to snoop on China is a 50-year-old treaty, called the UKUSA agreement, linking the espionage activities of the United States, United Kingdom and three other English-speaking nations Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Overall, its a multibillion-dollar effort, and China is a major target. Richelson, an intelligence historian who has written extensively on the U.S. can eavesdrop on Chinese communications range to use of undersea platforms like submarines to a variety of antenna systems on the ground up to satellites up to 24,000 miles in space, says Jeffrey T. In fact, spying on the Peoples Republic of China has been one of the National Security Agencys top priorities since it was established in 1952. Yet with a worldwide electronic eavesdropping operation, American intelligence agencies have found it is not impossible. PENETRATING CHINA is a very different challenge from gathering information in the open and apparently porous environment in which flesh-and-blood spies operate. The key to understanding Americas ability to snoop on China is a 50-year-old treaty linking the espionage activities of the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, Australia and New Zealand. effort, say experts in and out of government, is extensive, intrusive and very effective. NEW YORK, June 1 With so much attention focused on how the Chinese government has been spying on the United States, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that Washington has its own insatiable appetite for Chinas secrets. U.S., allies operate a ‘spying machine’ against Beijing
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