New York Times: US 'secretly expelled' Chinese officials who entered 'sensitive' military base
US
and Chinese flags are seen as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi meet at the US Department of State May
23, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP)
(Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
Washington (CNN)Two
Chinese Embassy officials were "secretly expelled" by the US earlier
this year after they entered a "sensitive" military base in Virginia, The New York Times reported Sunday, citing conversations with people with knowledge of the episode.
The
Times said half a dozen people with knowledge of the expulsions said US
officials believe "at least one of the Chinese officials, who were with
their wives, was an intelligence officer operating under diplomatic
cover."
Officials at the
Chinese Embassy "complained to State Department officials about the
expulsions," the Times reported, noting that the action comes amid heightened tensions between the US and China, "the world's two largest economies and biggest strategic rivals."
The
newspaper said that the September incident occurred at a base near
Norfolk, Virginia, that includes Special Operations forces. The Chinese
officials and their spouses drove a car up to an entry checkpoint where a
guard, "realizing they did not have permission to enter, told them to
go through the gate, turn around and exit the base, which is common
procedure in such situations," according to the Times. But the officials
instead proceeded to drive further onto the base and were eventually
stopped when fire trucks "blocked them," the newspaper said.
The
Chinese officials said at the time "that they did not understand the
guard's English instructions, and had simply gotten lost," the newspaper
said, but US officials told the Times "they were skeptical that the
intruders made an innocent error and dismissed the idea that their
English was insufficient to understand the initial order to leave."
The
Times, which noted it's unclear what the foreign officials were trying
to do on the base, said some US officials said "they believed it was to
test the security at the installation" and that had the Chinese
officials "made it onto the base without being stopped, the embassy
could have dispatched a more senior intelligence officer to enter the
base, the theory goes."
In
mid-October, the State Department unveiled new restrictions for Chinese
diplomats, the Times said, which require them "to provide notice before
meeting with local or state officials and with educational and research
institutions." The newspaper said that at the time, the department said
the new policy was in response to strict new rules imposed on American
diplomats in China, and two American officials told the Times that the
new State Department rule "had been under consideration for a while" as a
way to retaliate against China, "but episodes like the one at the base
accelerated the rollout."
China has not yet retaliated against the US for the expulsion of the two officials who entered the base, the Times said.
The
newspaper said the State Department and the FBI, which oversees
counterintelligence in the US, declined to comment, and the Chinese
Foreign Ministry and Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to
their request for comment.
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