A spy istoryahe
I thought I was watching a James Bond movie. The elements were there: an alleged Chinese spy, who embedded himself in a foreign land, was caught with devices for espionage. A certain Deng Yuanqing was arrested last Jan. 17 in Makati City. The Armed Forces of the Philippines insisted he is a sleeper agent who could easily blend in the crowd. Prior to his arrest, Mr. Deng was reportedly traveling around the Philippines conducting reconnaissance activity of government facilities, including critical infrastructure facilities like military installations, ports, communication grids, energy grids, among others.
Authorities added that Mr. Deng is a technical software engineer trained in an army engineering school, the People’s Liberation Army University of Science and Technology. He is said to be a specialist in control or automation engineering.
The devices seized from Deng, according to the National Bureau of Investigation, is capable of producing coordinates and can be used for drone control to identify topography and terrain. Also part of Deng’s equipment is one that can remotely access devices over the internet without entering the facility or building.
I almost took the Chinese espionage istoryahe hook, line and sinker until Harvard-educated Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro blamed China for its 2017 Intelligence Law, which mandates every Chinese company or citizen to be an agent of the Chinese intelligence establishment. Naloko na! There are 1.4 billion Chinese in mainland China. Does it mean there are 1.4 billion spies?
Political vlogger Sass Rogando Sassot, along with other vloggers, scoffed at the bulky spying equipment, as opposed to the discreet hardware setup for an espionage mission. In an era when advanced artificial intelligence, high-resolution satellites, electronic and cyber surveillance, unmanned aerial vehicles and drones are the norm, our local authorities are stuck with the intelligence-gathering devices available in Raon, Quiapo. Patawa!
One netizen raised these valid points: “Why would China make it hard to spy on a country using obsolete devices that our Armed Forces called high-tech and sophisticated? That alone is an outright lie intended to