A Chinese defector revealed some of the innermost secrets of the Chinese military

A Chinese defector revealed some of the innermost secrets of the Chinese military

A defector from China has revealed some of the innermost secrets of the Chinese government and military, including details of its nuclear command and control system, according to American intelligence officials.

Businessman Ling Wancheng disappeared from public view in California last year shortly after his brother, Ling Jihua, a former high-ranking official in the Communist Party, was arrested in China on corruption charges.

Ling Wancheng, the defector, has been undergoing a debrief by FBI, CIA, and other intelligence officials since last fall at a secret location in the United States, said officials familiar with details of the defection who spoke on condition of anonymity. The defector is said to be a target of covert Chinese agents seeking to capture or kill him.

Among the information disclosed by Ling are details about the procedures used by Chinese leaders on the use of nuclear weapons, such as the steps taken in preparing nuclear forces for attack and release codes for nuclear arms.

Other secrets revealed included details about the Chinese leadership and its facilities, including the compound in Beijing known as Zhongnanhai. That information is said to be valuable for US electronic spies, specifically for cyber intelligence operations targeting the secretive Chinese leadership.

Spokesmen for the White House, FBI, CIA, and Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on the case.

Other officials said Ling defected sometime in the summer of 2015 after his brother, once the senior administrative aide to former Chinese leader Hu Jintao, came under suspicion for leaking state secrets.

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This is probably one of the worst security breaches China has had in the last few decades. The amount of information / type of information details the highest level secrets the Chinese government has, including information on their nuclear forces, command and control for their nuclear forces, pass codes for their nukes in addition to compromising secure communications for their leadership.

The defector is actually the brother of a Chinese official who was arrested last year in China. His position in the government was to oversee the archiving of top secret documents. Apparently he started to make copies and stored those copies with his brother who was living in California. The brother told him that should he be arrested by Chinese authorities he is to turn the documents over to the US government, which is what happened.

The defection was triggered by the arrest of Ling’s brother, Ling Jihua, a former presidential aide who secretly obtained some 2,700 internal documents from a special Communist Party unit he headed until 2012. The unit was in charge of storing and archiving classified documents.

The fall out from this should be interesting to say the least. The damage done to the Chinese government / military is staggering...

Read the entire article to get an idea of the damage done...

To put it in perspective the guy who collected the documents - his position in the Chinese government -

The position is equivalent to that of the White House chief of staff, with broad access to the most sensitive details available exclusively to senior Chinese leaders.

ETA - additional info
* - China is demanding that the US return a disgraced aide who fled
* - The US may be about to score a huge intelligence victory over China
* - How one of China's most powerful men fell from grace

a reply to: Xcathdra

How long does it take to change the codes?

I smell stink all over this.

originally posted by: NewzNose
a reply to: Xcathdra

How long does it take to change the codes?

I smell stink all over this.

I am not sure.. Secondly it would need to be all codes to ensure security as opposed to what they think was compromised.

Stink all over this? explain?

a reply to: Xcathdra

A Chinese defector revealed some of the innermost secrets of the Chinese military

Well this could be interesting...how much is China willing to pay to get those back?

A good number would be 1.27 trillion dollars...the amount of our debt they hold.

This is great. Now maybe the US will know almost as much about the Chinese government, military, and technology as they know about us.

-dex

a reply to: Xcathdra

I don't trust either government to believe any of this kind of stink.

Their is massive corruption in the Chinese military. I would be surprised if they have any secrets left that have not been sold for a profit. The worst mistake the Chinese ever made was putting the military in the business of making money and running companies. Even though they have ended that the culture of making a profit at the expense of the military is still considered normal. Granted is not near the level of the Russian's who have literally sold anything they could get their hands on.

a reply to: DexterRiley

Now maybe the US will know almost as much about the Chinese government, military, and technology as they know about us.

It would be funny if all they got is what China hacked from us.

Now all the right needs to do is unleash their MacNamarra...www.youtube.com...

a reply to: MrSpad

I read something once that said the Chinese government tolerates a certain amount of corruption. The further that regional governmental bodies get from the Central government, the less influence that Beijing has over them. So allowing a certain amount of corruption makes those remote regional governments more loyal.

I wonder if the same applies to the military.

-dex

a reply to: tsurfer2000h

You know, when I think about it, a lot of China's technology does look like stuff that came from the US anyway. It would be funny if all they got were the specs and designs of the technology the stole from us originally.


-dex

a reply to: Xcathdra

Makes sense we know how transparent our gov't loves to be.

No better way to keep secret vital information then telling journalist.

On another hand Uncle Sam probably said F#-it . Its not like they don't manufacture our chips in gov't systems, hence they probably already now what we got.

a reply to: DexterRiley

Well the current leader of China is on a corruption crack down. Although there are reports that in addition to corruption the crackdowns are also targeting individuals put in place by previous governments / leaders / what ever you want to call it.

a reply to: Xcathdra

Interesting point. I think it's standard procedure when a new government comes into power to replace key people with others who are known to be loyal to the new regime. But hasn't the current regime been in power for a while?

Those actions may also be related to the Chinese government's attempt to move their economy to be more consumer based. Perhaps the previous level of corruption is not compatible with the new paradigm.

-dex

I think it's funny that the US is all gung ho on harboring a Chinese "whistle blower" while wanting to jail Snowden for for the exact same thing......treason. What a bunch of hypocrites!

a reply to: Xcathdra

I think its perhaps more correct to say he went public with this....as opposed to us thinking we didnt know anything about what they got.

Our US intel is pretty high. Not much we DONT know already. The public? No. News to us....

originally posted by: DexterRiley
a reply to: MrSpad

I read something once that said the Chinese government tolerates a certain amount of corruption. The further that regional governmental bodies get from the Central government, the less influence that Beijing has over them. So allowing a certain amount of corruption makes those remote regional governments more loyal.

I wonder if the same applies to the military.

-dex

They have tried crackdowns on the military even leading to executions. However, is this something that is so wide spread among its officer corps that it would seem impossible to stop in the short term with out a major purge and that could lead to a coup. Maybe in a slow long term campaign they can turn things around. But, it mostly deals with collaboration between active and retired officers. And those retired officers setting up those active officers for cushy retirement jobs doing exactly what they are doing. When they pulled the military out of running companies, retired officers just bought them and kept it going. Corruption in China is in many ways a way of life but, after Desert Storm China saw how completely out classed the were by the US they began to try and reform more into a modern western style military. Part of that was removing the corruption element from the military. And shrinking the size of its forces to the would be smaller but more lethal like the US. It has been slow going. Although the have made much better progress than the Russians. Mostly because the Chinese have enough volunteers without using conscripts and the Russians can not get volunteers.

Only on the Internet do we get top secret government information.

To new beginnings

originally posted by: StoutBroux
I think it's funny that the US is all gung ho on harboring a Chinese "whistle blower" while wanting to jail Snowden for for the exact same thing......treason. What a bunch of hypocrites!

yea but we're the good guys!

What's the name of Chinese secret espionage organization? Nobody knows !that's how good they are