(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., announced a new investigation on Monday into the efforts of Chinese spies to infiltrate the American military.
Comer and Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis. — who chairs the Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, the Border and Foreign Affairs — sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and FBI Director Chris Wray, in which they mentioned repeated instances of Chinese spies rushing through the security gates at U.S. military bases.
They called Austin and Wray to brief Congress about these security incidents by Oct. 16, 2023.
The news came after the Department of Defense [DOD], FBI and other U.S. agencies found more than a hundred instances of Chinese spies attempting to force their way onto U.S. military bases and other sensitive facilities.
It was additionally reported that these spies pretended to be tourists and sped through security gates before they were detained, criminally cited and escorted off base. According to the multi-agency review, these spies were dubbed as “gate crashers.”
“These efforts to access U.S. military bases and facilities raise concerns about what these Chinese nationals are seeking to access and for what purpose. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has long used espionage as a tool to gain access to U.S. national security secrets,” Comer and Grothman wrote.
Due to this threat and many others — like Chinese balloons flying all over the country — they also urged the American government to start doing something about it.
“It is imperative that our government is fully apprised of the breadth and depth of these activities, which pose significant threats to our national security, and our military personnel,” they wrote.
Comer and Grothman asked both the DOD and FBI to provide more specific details about the nature and frequency of communists’ efforts to surveil U.S. military bases, as well as the security implications of these incidents, while also asking the agencies what has already been done to fight the espionage attempts.
