Spies and Lies: A Groundbreaking Expose of China's Clandestine Operations

by Alex Joske

Overview

Spies and Lies by Alex Joske is a groundbreaking exposé of elite influence operations by China's little-known Ministry of State Security. Revealing for the first time how the Chinese Communist Party has tasked its spies to deceive the world, it challenges the conventional account of China's past, present and future.

Mere years ago, Western governments chose to cooperate with China in the hope that it would liberalize, setting aside concerns about human rights abuses, expansionism and espionage. But the axiom of China's 'peaceful rise' has been fundamentally challenged by the Chinese Communist Party's authoritarian behavior under Xi Jinping.

How did we get it wrong for so long?

Spies and Lies pierces the Ministry of State Security's walls of secrecy and reveals how agents of the Chinese Communist Party have spent nearly 40 years manipulating Western leaders' attitudes – from an Australian prime minister to the US Congress, prominent think tanks and the FBI – about China's rise. Through interviews with defectors and intelligence officers, classified Chinese intelligence documents and original investigations, the book unmasks dozens of active Chinese intelligence officers along with global MSS fronts including travel agencies, writers associations, publishing houses, alumni associations, newspapers, Buddhist retreats, a record company and charities.

Spies and Lies is an extraordinary insight into the most successful influence operation in history, one which has fooled the West for years, and indispensable reading.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781743797990
Publisher:	Hardie Grant
Publication date:	10/04/2022
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	646,458
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Alex Joske was the youngest-ever analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and is known for breaking open new fields of research through meticulous Chinese-language investigations grounded in authoritative and independently verifiable sources. His research in the hotly contested field of Chinese Communist Party influence and espionage efforts has withstood intense scrutiny and earned the respect and interest of governments and policymakers globally. He lives in Canberra, Australia.

Table of Contents

List of acronyms iv

Introduction 1

1 George Soros, the China Fund and the MSS 8

2 Spymaster: Yu Enguang 17

3 Nestling spies in the united front 24

4 A bloodbath marks a new era 40

5 Chinagate: The plot to buy the White House 56

6 Playing the long game 72

7 Zheng Bijian and China Reform Forum 84

8 The concoction of Chinas peaceful rise 97

9 WikiLeaks reveals the MSS 113

10 The revolving door: Scholars and the MSS 126

11 'China never forgets its friends': Elite capture 141

12 The Party you can't leave: Trump, Biden and beyond 153

13 The Goddess of Mercy: Buddhism as a tool of influence 171

Conclusion: Facing up to the MSS 186

Acknowledgements 203

About the author 203

Index 204

Notes 207