The Irish Military Intelligence Service (IMIS) has provided confidential briefings to university leaders, warning them about the risks associated with Chinese engagement in sensitive areas of research, particularly in fields that could be adapted for military use.
In the first authorised interview by the organisation, a senior IMIS officer said Ireland’s relationship with China posed a unique challenge, as the country enjoyed a beneficial economic relationship with Beijing, but said Irish universities had been warned about the potential consequences.
“It can be hugely detrimental to the West if you empower them [China] by educating them simply because they come to a university with funds. This can be hugely detrimental to the West if you teach them how to twist a knot to the left or right, which helps them to develop a weapon or military application.
We made these points to the universities and it was very successful. It’s done discreetly to empower and protect our democratic institutions,” he said. Irish third-level institutions have collaborated with Chinese universities, which have been linked to cyberattacks and nuclear research.The Irish Military Intelligence Service has provided confidential briefings to university leaders, warning them about the risks associated with Chinese engagement in sensitive areas of research, particularly in fields that could be adapted for military use.
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Irish third-level institutions have collaborated with Chinese universities, which have been linked to cyberattacks and nuclear research.
The intelligence service also identified Russia as one of the primary threats to the state’s national security and confirmed it had successfully disrupted the activities of foreign spies operating here, forcing some to leave the country.
Spies have been made to “pack their bags and go home” after their activities were “disrupted”, the officer said, which made it untenable for them to continue operating here without the need to make an arrest.
“They don’t necessarily know that we’ve been in the background but we have had a lot of success doing that,” he said.
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The secret organisation said it worked alongside the militaries of European countries including Britain, France and Germany, helping to protect them from aggressive acts by hostile states while upholding Ireland’s stated position of neutrality.
The officer described IMIS as being a “good European neighbour”. The Sunday Times agreed not to identify the officer by name, rank or appearance, or to record the interview, but he plays a part in briefing the government on national defence and authorising covert operations mounted by secretive branches of the military to protect Ireland.
The decision to allow the interview reflects mounting concern within the military about the scale of hostile activity targeting Ireland, and a belief that the public must be made aware of how modern conflict is already being waged below the threshold of war.
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In a related report from October, an investiation revealed how China’s United Front spy network has sought to influence Irish politicians and exploited a residency scheme.
... China’s intelligence services are infamous for their slow, methodical cultivation of contacts in positions of power — a strategy that embeds them in political and business life long before their aims become clear. The operation targeting Leinster House took years, indicating it was run by the United Front, a shadowy organisation that organises influence operations, but it may also have involved the Ministry of State Security (MSS), China’s foreign intelligence service.
“The United Front is a network of organisations and individuals working under a degree of guidance and control from the Chinese Communist Party. It helps legitimise the party inside China and manage political representation while also being used to push international objectives such as political influence in foreign countries,” Alex Joske, the author of Spies and Lies: How China’s Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World, said ...
The United Front’s structure is vast and under President Xi it has become a central instrument of Beijing statecraft. It extends its reach through an array of friendship associations, business forums and student groups ...
The UF was also responsible for attempts to secure access to the British royal family by befriending the Duke of York. Prince Andrew first met the suspected agent, Yang Tengbo, in 2013 at a reception during the Shanghai Grand Prix. Yang later became a confidant of the duke until he was banned from entering Britain on national security grounds.
The full scale of the damage done to Irish interests may be far greater than the government can imagine, however. The agent at the centre of the scandal is part of a larger network of Chinese nationals who have acquired significant wealth in Ireland. An analysis of one business showed it acquired a significant state property in return for investment into a company that appears to have stopped trading and is defunct ...
The threat posed by hostile states such as Russia and China has been identified as one of the most pressing challenges for the government, specifically Jim O’Callaghan, the justice minister, and Harris, now foreign affairs and defence minister ...
Chung Ching Kwong, a senior analyst at the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance in Britain, described UF operations in Ireland as part of wider “grey zone” activity by Beijing in the European Union. Her research has previously uncovered the existence of UF stations in Dublin, two in Cork and one at the University of Galway, identified using information from publicly available Chinese records ...
“At some point intelligence communities will have to come up with a whole-of-state approach to protect society. But I haven’t seen those kinds of discussions happening yet,” she said.