Western media recently identified a nondescript 12-story building in the Pudong district of Shanghai as being the headquarters of a secret unit of the Chinese People's Liberation Army engaged in cyberwarfare. The unit, which goes by the designation 61398, is alleged to have hacked into hacked into the mainframes of at least 141 U.S. corporations -- allegations which were denied by the Chinese government.
As far as Japan is concerned, incursions of this sort are not someone else's problem, writes Shukan Post (March 15). For one thing, the large American military presence on Okinawa appears to be the target of intelligence gathering by the Chinese.
It was about five years ago that military authorities did a sweep of off-base housing in the town of Chatan, near Kadena Air Base, and found listening devices in five or six units of a rental condominium.
On Okinawa, about 15,000 military personnel and civilian employees of the U.S. military, and their family members, live off base on the local economy, mostly in some 5,000 units concentrated in central areas of the main island such as Chatan and in Okinawa City, also close to Kadena.
According to a local realtor, many residents therein are "high-ranking officers."
"Several years ago, a member of the U.S. armed forces living off base noticed his personal computer was behaving strangely," a source in the U.S. Department of Defense tells the magazine. "He promptly reported this to his superior, who sent investigators to his house. Along with finding evidence that someone had broken in and removed data from his computer, they also found an eavesdropping device."
"I can't go into detail on the results of the investigation," the source continues, "but it was found that people working in close cooperation with 'Chinese investors' could easily obtain entry to the building, and that they frequently entered and left the units. We concluded there was a strong possibility that China was engaged in intelligence gathering activities."
While Shukan Post concedes that it has no evidence the same organization was behind the separate incidents, a common thread is suspected.
"There are ongoing moves by Chinese investors to buy up off-base houses and condos used by the military. If the owner is Chinese, he can use a passkey to open the door when the tenant is absent, to make repairs under the pretext of renovation, and this makes it possible to install bugs."
The president of a local real estate firm says that while he received some tempting offers from interested buyers, he decided not to deal with foreign investors.
"But I heard from some other operators were selling to Chinese," he is quoted as saying. "The U.S. military has taken steps not to deal with those operators for jobs on the bases."
"We often get inquiries from Chinese who are interested in investing in housing for Americans," says another real estate operator in central Okinawa. "They've been adopting a variety of tricks to mask their identities, such as naturalizing as Japanese citizens or by using the names of Japanese corporations that they've registered. We risk getting criticized for selling to Chinese. So in situations like this, it works better for us not to know who we're actually dealing with."
The difficulty in determining ownership of those rental properties means more potential problems for the U.S. side.
"We can't relax any longer if personnel live in off-base housing," the aforementioned DOD source remarks. "We're not concerned only about leaking of secrets. If a pilot were to live there when he's off duty, the time from when he's called until he can report for duty and get airborne will take longer And there's also the chance that operational information might be leaked. It's an extremely serious situation."
© Japan Today
35 Comments
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Okinawamike
And here I was ready to run to the commissary for several cans of Raid! Can you say sensationalism?
BertieWooster
Gosh, what a terrible situation.
Naughty Chinese!
The US military had better go home where it's safer and more secure.
SauloJpn
Welcome to the Tech Cold War!
Virtuoso
I'd hate to be assigned to the job of transcribing what those bugs pick up -- 99% is likely to be snores, rap music or the audio portion of NFL football games.
Michael McThrow
Hopefully this doesn't lead to discrimination against Chinese immigrants in Japan or to foreigners looking to purchase real estate in Japan. Currently, if I understand correctly, there are no restrictions on the purchase of real estate in Japan by foreigners, although banks typically require permanent residency or citizenship for mortgages. I hope that this, as well as Japan's disputes with its neighbors, doesn't lead to increased restrictions on the rights and privileges of foreigners.
edojin
The article above sounds logical.
That's all I'll say about it ...
SamuraiBlue
The Chinese had been envovled in various espionage on the islands of Okinawa from the last decade mostly to agitate the removal of the US base and most recently the independent movement of Okinawa (which had been quite unsuccessful).
There are various civilian removal of US base organizations in Okinawa and many are funded by PRC mostly in the form of tourism NGOs and developers. Basically it is the same tactics the KGB had done at Universities during the Vietnam war which I believe the CIA and FBI have vast records of.
oberst
I am shock they just " discovered " the bugs................come on, don't they watch any spy movies ?
Yubaru
It's nothing new in the "game". The US has people eavesdropping in on China from Okinawa too.
oberst
The headline of this article almost tempted me to call the Orkin men on behalf of DoD...................
DudeDeuce
First Chinese sand, then Chinese pollution, then Chinese ships, and now Chinese bugs?
What's coming to Japan next to make our lives come to a complete standstill that I cannot concentrate.
House Atreides
Avoid Chinese telecom equipment as well. It's no good sweeping for bugs if your communications equipment has backdoors built into them. Michael Maloof, a former senior security policy analyst in the Office of the Secretary of Defense:
Dennis Bauer
Are those Chinese bedbugs?
Jay Que
I understand many of the laptops used in the State Department were bought from Lenovo, which used to be IBM before purchased by a PRC company. I doubt they would dare thing of putting bugs in those things, after all aren't we strategic partners?
FightingViking
@Okinawamike
...and my first reaction : "Nankin mushi" ...? (Nasty little bug-gers"...)
Kimokekahuna Hawaii
The world has an infestation of Chinese bugs
nath
And I just saw a strange looking six-legged bug crawling in my condo. Really...JapanToday could you please change the title a little. It really looks like you're talking about insects and not listening devices. Now seriously...I'm so tired about hearing all the crap the Chinese government is doing and what some Chinese citizens are doing. They are going to become public enemy number one real soon. I don't trust their government anyway. Phooey!
BertieWooster
Samuraiblue,
Or the U.S.A. had done in Afghanistan, Mali, Libya, Syria, Columbia, Venezuela, etc., etc.
BertieWooster
SamuraiBlue,
It's not the Chinese who want the US bases off Okinawa, it's the Okinawans.
All 41 mayors of the 41 Okinawan districts want the bases off.
And they are elected by Okinawans, not Chinese, and largely on the basis of their anti-base activities.
China has very little presence in Okinawa.
You can count the number of decent Chinese restaurants in Okinawa on one hand.
SamuraiBlue
BertieWooster
I know the islanders are generally against the base BUT most that I had talked to are not hell bent on the issue like some I been watching lately and they were not as organized like the mass demonstration we see today. That kind of organization requires money and lots of it to keep the fire burning like printing lots of handouts not to mention manual labor to do it. Most demostrations are flash fire types that dies out quickly after the source had been estinguished.
Another point is agitating a group does not require a huge mass and in fact if they have people infultrated in the right position they can pull it off with a hand full with some not really knowing where the money is actually coming from or know who they are really working.
Last if I remember correctly the most influencial political party in Okinawa was the Communist party, does that also have something to do with it, I wonder?
msmahumane@gmail.com
All Chinese telecommunications companies should be boycotted worldwide, and the Chinese should be made to desist from competing for international contracts
Steve Fabricant
There are plenty of Chinese in Okinawa. Most of the students in Japanese Language schools are from China, and a lot of them overstay and end up working in the backrooms so they can save money, just like on the mainland.
BertieWooster
SamuraiBlue,
You said it!
BertieWooster
Steve Fabricant,
You are quite correct, there are many students here. There are also many tourists. Shintoshin, Shuri, Manzamo and other tourist spots are full of them.
I didn't say what I wanted to say very clearly. It was in response to SamuraiBlue's assertion that the Chinese had infiltrated Okinawa and were performing covert actions to get rid of the US bases here.
I meant that I don't think the Chinese have a strong presence here to encourage Okinawans to organise anti-base protests. I have been to many of these events and have many friends and relatives who are involved in them and have seen no evidence of this. Quite the opposite. A lot of Okinawans just want their own land back. It's been promised to them time and time again, but the promises have come to nothing.
gokai_wo_maneku
Based on this article, it is only speculation that the "bugs" are Chinese. The writer is trying to associate Chinese interest in buying aparatments with the presence of the bugs. It is just an inference, or a guess. The bugs could be planted by anyone. Maybe the US is trying to see what their military people are up to off base. Who knows.
BertieWooster
gokai_wo_maneku-san,
Yes, exactly.
It's all part of the "The Chinese are the new Al-Quaeda" message they are trying to scare everybody with.
I guess it's an attempt at justifying the presence of huge US military bases in Okinawa and selling a ton of very expensive military hardware to Japan.
Paul Arenson
Samurai Blue
The JCP has relatively poor relations with the CPs of China, also former soviet. This is an indigenous movt, do not plant the idea it is foreign influenced. You betray your ignorance of j social movements. The converse is true...us uses excuse of foreign interference threat to justify its presence, which is all about war making for oil and hegemony, and profits for Boeing and Lockheed.
SamuraiBlue
Paul Arenson
Things are not clear cut as you think. Just follow the money which I had done sifting through the various NGO home page and their annual finacial statements.
Paul Arenson
Sorry, Samurai blue..I am a long time activist involved with these groups. Even the Okinawa branches of the conservative parties are far to the left on the base issue. The manipulation is done by the US....disinformation specialist. The activists are of all stripes, but outside countries parties are not manipulating people. Some of those who are less anti base are only so because they worry about the military economy and are afraid as in other quasi colonies of economic loses.T his is the same reason people in other impoverished areas are kept on the leash by the gov in order to build up the nuclear industry or other lethal enterprises. in the US some of the greatest violations of environmental safety are on the Mexican border...poor people everywhere are at the mercy of the military and the corporations. no B movie plots about communist infiltrators please....we had enough of that during the red scares.
Paul Arenson
So, if you are so well informed (laugh-like JCP supposedly being one and the same as the Chinese, please show us your significant data showing origin control of Okinawan anti base groups.
bass4funk
@bertie
And with good reason.
That will never happen, at least not in the near foreseeable future. I lived in Okinawa for a many years, some want the bases closed, some want them opened, because they know, once they pull out, the economy will suffer greaty, if you think otherwise, then you are not dealing with reality.
Something that Japan needs to ensure its safety in the region.
Paul Arenson
The US has killed in those nations. It and it's proxies in El Salvador, Chile, etc. saw thousands upon thousand of disappeared, a democratically elected Socialist Pres Allende assassinated on Sept 11. China, N Korea are no bargain, but their belligerency is facilitated by US attempts to paint their presence in Japan as protection from these supposedly treacherous evil nations. The US wants to see the that belligerency as the raisin d'être for the presence of its troops, but this is an excuse to persuade citizens that they are here for them, rather to further US empire.
As long as it succeeds in maintaining the image of a dangerous NK, for example, it bets that people will at least reluctantly accept the stationing of troops and equipment. But these are used directly and indirectly to kill civilians in The Middle East, and to even allow under so-called liberal Obama for targetted assassinations of US Citizens without due process. Sure many want the bases as they are the only way for the economy to survive, but this just illustrates how the weak are being screwed by the military and politicians, and given a history of discrimination or apathy by mainland. Japanese toward their Okinawan fellow citizens, they are in a bind.
The Us calls N Korea unpredictable, but it has in reality come very close to dropping nukes on that nation a number of times and broken promises. As the worlds most famous democracy, it uses the media to manipulate public opinion so that it sees the threat as one sided, and many people do not understand that the real threat comes from ramping up zon tensions on purpose. To create a permanent need for the military industrial complex to embed itself. Meanwhile napalm bombs dropped by troops stationed in Okinawa killed millions in Vietnam, AgentOrange disabled perhaps a similar number, and the US according to recent investigations has lied about the exposure of GIS and Okinawan citizens to it as well.
Yeah, my country is a democracy, so long as you do not challenge its lies too closely. When it says it does not torture, for example, it fails to tell you that it outsourced extraordinary renditions and torture to others countries--even Syria. So full of lies, and assuring t he Japanese that it is here to protect them is the baldest one. the Okinawans remeber when the US stole their land at gunpoint and have about as much regard for the US as they do for the nationalist Jpanese politicians who sacrificed them during WWII, whose descendants just happen to be the likes of PM and his fascist associates.
motytrah
The Chinese gov't loves bugs. It's become very common for communist party members to bug each other in the mainland. China is quite advanced in with it's eavesdropping technologies. It should surprise anyone that they would conduct intelligence operations in Japan. The local cops at Koban aren't going to know what's going on.
bass4funk
@paul
I'm trying to figure out, what your tirade about the US is all about. You kinda strayed way off topic. I'm a bit confused.
Paul Arenson
SB is trying to make it appear that the movt against the bases is somehow controlled by China, that otherwise the people of Okinawa are fine, or at least not upset by the bases. He or he does not know, or does not want people to know why the bases are there, does not know or want people to know that the US is not benevolently looking after their well being. This "tirade" then is to show that the US presence has very little with keeping the peace. It is not just rapes and crimes, the whole reason the US is here is to maintain its hegemony. But the Japanese right and US military industrialists use disinformation in order to persuade people the bases are a force for good. And outright bribery in the form of economic incentives...keep the people poor, or at least economically dependent on the unwanted bases.... No bases, no jobs....like the way the nuclear mafia builds libraries and sporting facilities in towns that host their reactors. Okinawa and Tohoku are two of the poorest parts of Japan, abandoned by the state, or perhaps the word is sacrificed. Not off topic....it is not about the bad Chinese eavesdropping on the good US. They all do that. The real question is why they have these massive bases here in the first place and whose interests they serve.