“I’ve had Chinese students tell me, ‘I couldn’t talk in class because the fellow sitting over there in the corner would report back.’ ”
That’s the testimony of Jim Lewis, a former U.S. diplomat “whose direct experience with China’s intelligence agencies spans more than 30 years.”
Lewis told “60 Minutes” that Chinese spies “have also infiltrated college campuses in the U.S. This corroborates a report this month from the Stanford Review, which alleges that spies from the Chinese Communist Party are recruiting students at the California campus” (“How China recruits its spies in the U.S.,” CBS News, May 18, 2025).
China’s main spy agency, the Ministry of State Security—or MSS—is now the largest and most active spy agency in the world. Its top target is not a foreign power, although the United States ranks number two. Instead, the priority for the MSS is China’s own people, including those living abroad in the U.S….
According to Lewis, China’s MSS uses many of the same techniques [to recruit spies] as other spy agencies: sex, money, and revenge.
“You’re a disgruntled employee. You haven’t been recognized, and someone comes along and flatters you and says you can pay them back,” Lewis explained.
He also said the “honeypot” or “honey trap” strategy [sex and romance] is common….
If those do not work, there is always a monetary incentive. “Money works like a charm,” Lewis said.
Another method is blackmail. The Chinese government bullies people into becoming agents by threatening their families back home.
It’s not just people with family in China who should be concerned about China’s international coercion.
“One of the precedents that I thought we had learned in the 1940s is that countries that don’t respect their own citizens, don’t respect their neighbors,” Lewis says. “Fundamental rights are the basis of international security…. Because when they mistreat their own citizens, you’re next.”
Also see:
StoptheCCP.org: “Why U.S. Universities Accept Spying by the Chinese Communist Party“
