In January, the arrest of a Chinese national in the Philippines led to the unravelling of an alleged espionage operation coordinated from Beijing. In an excerpt from their upcoming book, The Great Heist, David R. Shedd and Andrew Badger look at the Manila “spy ring” and its possible connection to China’s hypersonic missile program.
Illustration by Pete Ryan
It began with a Toyota RAV4, idling on a quiet street in Manila. The air was humid, and the city buzzed with activity. Inside were three men. One, Deng Yuanqing, was a Chinese national and the others were Filipino, posing as surveyors. On the dashboard: a mounted tablet, connected to a Global Navigation Satellite System. In the back seat: a high-powered imaging drone and a custom-built data relay antenna. They weren’t lost, nor were they tourists. They were closely observing a sensitive U.S. m
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