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This year there has been no shortage of troubling Chinese spying activities targeting the United States that have been exposed by government officials.
2025 saw the conviction of a former active-duty military man accused of selling naval secrets to Chinese intelligence, the arrest of Chinese citizens accused of trying to recruit active-duty military personnel as intelligence assets and smuggling dangerous toxins into the United States, the destruction of China's “hacker-for-hire” ecosystem, and more.
“President Trump is not afraid of the Chinese,” Gatestone Institute Senior Fellow Gordon Chang said on Fox Business' “Mornings with Maria” after new arms sales to Taiwan. However, Chang lamented Trump's ambivalence about the “information war” with China, noting that “the Chinese may slander him and tell the rest of the world that Trump is afraid of the Chinese… but if you look at the reality, President Trump is going after China on all fronts,” Chang argued.
EXC-TRUMP OFFICIAL ROUND THE ALARM ON NATIONAL SECURITY THREATS IN IMPORTANT US INDUSTRIES
One of the alarming Chinese espionage headlines that made the news this year was the attempt by several Chinese citizens to smuggle a pathogen described by the government as a “potential agroterrorism weapon” into the United States in 2024. This year, federal officials uncovered a complaint against the suspects, causing the case to make headlines across the country.
A flag flies in front of the Chinese Embassy in Berlin, Germany, Monday, April 22, 2024. (Hannes P. Albert/dpa via AP, file)
One of the participants in this case, Yunqing Jian, 33 years old, citizen People's Republic of China and a researcher working at the University of Michigan was allegedly paid by the Chinese government for her work on a pathogen that the suspects were trying to smuggle. Meanwhile, her boyfriend, who was working at a Chinese university doing research on the same pathogen, initially lied but then admitted that he had smuggled it through the Detroit airport so it could be taken to the University of Michigan laboratory where his girlfriend worked.
Jiang eventually pleaded guilty. She was later sentenced to serve time and then deported back to China. Her boyfriend was immediately deported to China when he was caught at the Detroit airport trying to smuggle the toxin into the United States.
Just this month, a separate Chinese researcher at Indiana University was also accused of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about an attempt to smuggle a dangerous toxin into the country, this time Escherichia coli (E.coli). The FBI identified the smuggling suspect as postdoctoral researcher Yuhuang Xiang, who also allegedly made false statements to law enforcement.
FCC and AGS JOIN FORCES ON CHINA-LINKED COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY CONCERNS
Federal officials this year thwarted Chinese intelligence efforts to recruit assets in the United States, according to the Justice Department.
In July, federal officials disrupted the “PRC Ministry of State Security Secret Intelligence Network” that operated in the United States and attempted to bribe active-duty military personnel with thousands of dollars in cash to work as assets for them.
The following month, in a separate case, a federal jury convicted former Navy sailor Jinchao Wei, also known as Patrick Wei, who was caught trying to sell military secrets to a Chinese intelligence officer for $12,000.
The national flags of the United States and China fly at the Fairmont Peace Hotel on April 25, 2024 in Shanghai, China. (Wang Gang/VCG via Getty Images)
Hacking was also an important part of Chinese espionage activities in 2025.
This year, a major China-linked hacker threat known as the “Salt Typhoon” was reported to have launched an attack that compromised at least 200 US companies, as part of a broader effort that included gaining access to law enforcement agencies wiretapping mechanisms and information on members of Congress, according to the FBI's top cyber supervisor. Critical infrastructure vendors such as AT&T, Verizon, Charter Communications and others have reportedly been exposed by a group that first became publicly known in 2024, but whose efforts began several years ago.
Earlier this year, in March, Ministry of Justice also announced that federal officials had disrupted an “ecosystem of mercenary hackers” operating outside China at the direction of Chinese intelligence officers. These attackers worked for private companies and as contractors in China, with the goal of hacking and stealing information in a way that concealed Chinese government involvement, the Justice Department said.
China's increasing acquisition of agricultural land in the United States has been significant. growing concern and through 2025, as Chinese-linked entities buy up land near military bases, including a trailer park near Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (Lintao Zhang/getty images)
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“Communist China seeks to harm the American homeland,” Michael Lucci, a China hawk and founder of State Armor Action, a conservative group whose mission is to develop and implement state-level solutions to global security threats such as those emanating from China.
“Moreover, these events are just the tip of the iceberg,” Lucci continued. “Lawmakers across the country must accelerate action to protect Americans from CCP influence, espionage and sabotage. Communist China treats the United States as an enemy, and it is high time to recognize that the CCP party state always and everywhere chooses conflict with the United States.”
Fox News Digital's Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.
