Centre Warns of China Using Job Portals to Recruit Indian Spies
As for payment, in one case Rs 1 lakh was paid to an Indian student studying in China while in another a “journalist” was paid Rs 40,000, which was received from a cryptocurrency fraud in which a person from Gujarat was duped of Rs 8.5 lakh, the MHA note said.
New Delhi: The Union Home Ministry has alerted all ministries, departments and state governments with regard to the covert operations by Chinese Intelligence Operatives (CIO) and Suspected Chinese Entities (SCE) in India who are actively engaged in collecting sensitive information pertaining to national security, defence setup, critical infrastructure and government functioning.
Detailing their modus operandi, the MHA has said that these are Hong Kong-based entities who are recruiting experienced candidates in journalism and defence sectors using job portals like Linkedin, Naukri.com etc. The short listed candidates are screened by Indian intermediaries and then sent to SCE for final selection and placement.
During investigations it was found that the selected candidates were made to write source-based articles covering strategic topics such as India-China relations, QUAD, SCO, G20, war experience, Indo-Pak conflict, Operation Sindoor, deployment of troops, weapon systems, latest defence procurement, joint military exercise such as Nomadic Elephant (Indo-Mangolia), Malabar Exercise involving Quad countries and war exercises between India and the United States of America.
Such Chinese agents disguise themselves as consulting firms based in Singapore, Hong Kong, or as residents of Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Macau, Malaysia etc to conceal their real identity. In one case the applicants were found to be recruited through Indian intermediaries, who remained unaware of the actual objectives and were acting as local representatives of a Singapore-based consulting firm and found to be involved in screening and recruiting of applicants.
As for payment, in one case Rs 1 lakh was paid to an Indian student studying in China while in another a “journalist” was paid Rs 40,000, which was received from a cryptocurrency fraud in which a person from Gujarat was duped of Rs 8.5 lakh, the MHA note said. It added that initially people were paid $100 for writing articles which later increased to $300-400 depending on the quality of reports. Payments were usually made through Indian accounts or sometimes through overseas transfers, the note added.
Documents such as PAN and Aadhaar cards of applicants with defence background were being collected through Indian intermediaries. The MHA has asked all departments, ministries and states to sensitise their employees regarding the modus operandi adopted by these SCEs and SCOs and stay alert.