China's call for counter-espionage concerns US

The United States has raised concerns over a Chinese call to encourage its citizens to join counter-espionage work and said it has been closely monitoring the implementation of Beijing's expanded anti-spying law.

Washington's Wednesday statement comes after China's Ministry of State Security on Tuesday said China should encourage its citizens to join counter-espionage work, including creating channels for individuals to report suspicious activity and rewarding them for doing so.

A system that makes it "normal" for regular people to participate in counter-espionage should be established, the ministry said.

That followed an expansion of China's counter-espionage law that took effect in July and bans the transfer of information it sees as related to national security.

It has alarmed the United States, which has warned that foreign companies in China could be punished for regular business activities.

"We do have concerns over it, certainly encouraging citizens to spy on each other is something that's of great concern," State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told a daily news briefing.

"We are closely monitoring the implementation of China's new counter-espionage law as we have been, which as written greatly expands the scope of what activities are considered espionage," he said.

'Empire of hacking'

In recent years, China has arrested and detained dozens of Chinese and foreign nationals on suspicion of espionage, including an executive at Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma in March.

Australian journalist Cheng Lei, accused by China of providing state secrets to another country, has been detained since September 2020.

China's declaration that it is under threat from spies comes as Western nations, most prominently the United States, accuse China of espionage and cyberattacks, a charge that Beijing has rejected.

The United States itself is the "empire of hacking," a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson has said.

Last week, the Biden administration said it believes China has implanted malware in key US power and communications networks in a "ticking time bomb" that could disrupt the military in the event of a conflict.

Last month, Microsoft said a Chinese hacking group, which it called Storm-0558, had gained access to email accounts affecting about 25 organisations, including government agencies, since mid-May as well as to consumer accounts of individuals likely associated with those agencies.

Neither Microsoft nor US officials identified the agencies or governments impacted.