The spy balloon affair is revealing of the secret war in which the superpowers, and particularly China and the United States, are engaged, wherever this shadow confrontation is possible:
• On land, of course. Classic espionage, the second oldest profession in the world, is practiced more than ever by intelligence services of all stripes. Nothing replaces the recruitment of human sources placed at the heart of the opposing politico-military apparatuses.
We remember that, in all likelihood, the CIA learned the date of the outbreak of the Russian invasion in Ukraine thanks to a mole in a position to know Vladimir Putin’s decisions very early on. For a year, not a week has gone by without a Russian agent being arrested in Europe or the United States, where several Chinese espionage cases have recently hit the headlines.
Ukraine, Al-Qaeda… How the CIA restored its image
• On sea. All major powers have spy boats that intercept communications in target countries from nearby international waters. Recently, the Chinese navy dispatched, for the first time, the “Haiwangxing” close to the Australian naval communications station Harold E. Holt, the most powerful in the southern hemisphere; and another, the “Yuan Wang 5”, in Sri Lanka, presumably to spy on New Delhi, a de facto ally of the United States in the Indo-Pacific.
That’s not all. All major military systems ma
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