CCP Masking Intelligence Operations Behind Corporate Entities: Security Expert

Participants listen to a keynote speech by Greg Levesque, CEO and co-founder of Strider Technologies, at the Vancouver International Security Forum on Nov. 25, 2024, at the Coast Coal Harbour Hotel in downtown Vancouver. NTD

China is concealing intelligence operations as corporate entities and research programs, a security expert warned at a Vancouver international security forum on foreign threats.

Greg Levesque, co-founder and CEO of Strider Technologies, outlined China’s technology theft tactics targeting democracies, including Canada, during a Nov. 25 keynote at the Vancouver International Security Summit. The tactics include recruiting overseas Chinese researchers to steal foreign technology and using research partnerships to mask intelligence operations, he said.

Levesque highlighted the Tianjin International Joint Academy of Biomedicine (TJAB), saying, “This is an intelligence operation that was monetized, a corporate entity was created, but it was with the full background support from the PRC [People’s Republic of China].”

In 2022, TJAB was designated by the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese as a platform to attract overseas talents, according to a Chinese official press release. The federation is managed by the United Front Work Department, the Chinese Communist Party’s main tool for foreign interference, according to a 2020 Australian Strategic Policy Institute study cited by Public Safety Canada.

Just months after becoming China’s leader in 2013, Xi Jinping visited the TJAB to inspect research at the institution, according to Chinese state media.

Talent Recruitment

Citing a 2022 study by Strider Technologies, Levesque highlighted the case of the PRC recruiting top scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory to advance its military programs. The laboratory, located in New Mexico, is a critical U.S. Department of Energy facility known for its nuclear research, including the design of nuclear weapons.

“Between 1987 and 2021, at least 162 scientists who had worked at Los Alamos returned to the PRC to support a variety of domestic research and development (R&D) programs,” said the report “The Los Alamos Club.” Since their return to China, former Los Alamos scientists have helped the regime advance key military and dual-use technologies, including deep-earth penetrating warheads, submarine noise reduction, and unmanned autonomous vehicles, the report said.

Fifteen of the 162 scientists had been permanent staff at Los Alamos, with 13 recruited into PRC government talent programs. At least one held a U.S. Department of Energy “Q Clearance,” granting access to top-secret restricted data and national security information, according to the report.

A slide on China’s talent recruitment targeting top scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico, is shown during Greg Levesque's keynote speech at the Vancouver International Security Forum on Nov. 25, 2024. NTD

Levesque said similar Chinese recruitment efforts have targeted other U.S. national laboratories. In the Los Alamos case, over a third of recruits were part of the CCP’s “Thousand Talents Program.” Strider Technologies is tracking at least 1,000 other Chinese programs, according to Levesque.

The Vancouver International Security Forum runs from Nov. 25 to 26, with experts and officials from Canada and the United States in attendance.

NTD Television contributed to this report.