ANOTHER EX-CIA AGENT SENTENCED FOR SPYING FOR CHINA
Another former CIA case officer, Kevin Mallory, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for selling secrets to China for $25,000. At his trial last year, Mallory was shown in a surveillance video scanning classified documents onto a memory card at a post office. He also travelled to Shanghai to meet with a PRC agent in the spring of 2017. "Mallory not only put our country at great risk, but he endangered the lives of [people] who put their own safety at risk for our national defense," said U.S. attorney Zachary Terwilliger. "This case is one in an alarming trend of former U.S. intelligence officers being targeted by China and betraying their country and colleagues," said Assistant Attorney General John Demers. Last month, ex-CIA agent Jerry Chun Shing Lee pleaded guilty to spying for China, and last June, former U.S. intelligence officer Ron Rockwell Hansen was charged with passing information to Beijing for $800,000. (BBC, May 18, 2019)
TSAI ACCUSES CHINA OF STEPPING UP EFFORTS TO INFILTRATE TAIWAN
Taiwan's President, Tsai Ing-Wen, has called on her country's national security agencies to enhance efforts to counter Beijing's influence and infiltration campaigns. Tsai said Beijing's operations include election interference and fake news campaigns designed to influence public opinion. "The Chinese Communist Party continues to demonstrate provocative actions in the Taiwan Strait, destroying the status quo across the Taiwan Strait," she said. (Al-Jazeera, May 10, 2019)
U.S. HOUSE PASSES "TAIWAN ASSURANCE ACT OF 2019"
By a vote of 414-0, the U.S. House of Representatives has unanimously passed the "Taiwan Assurance Act of 2019," which urges Taiwan to increase defense spending, supports "regular sales" of defense articles" to Taiwan, and backs Taiwan's participation in international organizations. It is unclear when the Act will come up for a vote in the Senate. (CNBC, May 7, 2019)
TAIWAN LEGALIZES GAY MARRIAGE...AND BEIJING TRIES TO TAKE CREDIT
Taiwan has become the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriages, demonstrating that the practice is not incompatible with Chinese culture. Although homosexuality is not illegal in China, same-sex marriage is and that is unlikely to change any time soon. In 2016, Chinese censors banned the portrayal of "abnormal sexual behavior," including gay and lesbian relationships, on TV and on online shows. LGBT-themed books have been restricted in the country's libraries and last November an author of same-sex erotic fiction was jailed for ten years. Oddly, however, after the Taiwan's legislature passed the legislation, the official People's Daily tweeted a rainbow color-infused animated image that said, "love is love" underneath the headline, "Local lawmakers in Taiwan, China, have legalized same-sex marriage in a first for Asia." The official Global Times also posted a video showcasing gay social life in Beijing. (CNN, May 23, 2019)
TOP SENATE DEMOCRAT CALLS FOR PROBE OF CHINESE RAIL CAR SUPPLIER
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is calling for an investigation into whether a plan for new subway cars in New York City designed by CRRC, a Chinese state-owned company and one of the world's largest train makers, could pose a threat to national security. Schumer asked the Commerce Department to conduct a "top-to-bottom review" after CRRC won the design contest for new subway cars that would include "modern train control technology." CRRC proposed investing $50 million of its own money to develop the new subway cars. In recent years, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia have all awarded contracts for their new subway cars to CRRC, which is now also seeking a $500 million contract with the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. (Associated Press, May 20, 2019)
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