纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英揭秘中国国安部充分利用AI技术与CIA直接竞争

The Chinese spies wanted more. In meetings during the pandemic with Chinese technology contractors, they complained that surveillance cameras tracking foreign diplomats, military officers and intelligence operatives in Beijing’s embassy district fell short of their needs.

中国的情报人员想得到更多。他们在疫情期间与中国技术承包商开会时抱怨，在北京使馆区安装的跟踪他国外交官、武官和情报人员的监控摄像头无法满足他们的需求。

The spies asked for an artificial intelligence program that would create instant dossiers on every person of interest in the area and analyze their behavior patterns. They proposed feeding the A.I. program information from databases and scores of cameras that would include car license plates, cellphone data, contacts and more.

情报人员要求承包商使用人工智能软件，即时生成他们感兴趣的使馆区每个人的档案，并分析他们的行为模式。他们建议用人工智能软件处理来自数据库和数十个摄像头采集的信息，包括汽车牌照、手机数据和联系人等等。

The A.I.-generated profiles would allow the Chinese spies to select targets and pinpoint their networks and vulnerabilities, according to internal meeting memos obtained by The New York Times.

据《纽约时报》获得的内部会议备忘录，这些用人工智能生成的档案将让中国情报人员选择监视目标，查明他们的联络网，找到他们的弱点。

The spies’ interest in the technology, disclosed here for the first time, reveals some of the vast ambitions of the Ministry of State Security, China’s main intelligence agency. In recent years, it has built itself up through wider recruitment, including of American citizens. The agency has also sharpened itself through better training, a bigger budget and the use of advanced technologies to try to fulfill the goal of Xi Jinping, China’s leader, for the nation to rival the United States as the world’s pre-eminent economic and military power.

本报在此首次披露中国情报人员对人工智能技术的兴趣，揭示了该国主要情报机构——中国国家安全部的部分巨大野心。近年来，国安部通过更广泛的人员招募（包括招募美国公民）而逐渐壮大。国安部还通过更好的培训、更大的预算，以及使用先进技术来加强自身实力，以努力实现中国领导人习近平的目标，也就是让中国成为能与美国竞争的世界杰出经济和军事强国。

The Chinese agency, known as the M.S.S., once rife with agents whose main source of information was gossip at embassy dinner parties, is now going toe-to-toe with the Central Intelligence Agency in collection and subterfuge around the world.

国安部大多数情报人员以前的主要信息来源是从使馆晚宴上听来的闲言碎语。现在，这家中国机构现正在与美国中央情报局直接竞争，在世界各地收集情报、施展诡计。

Today the Chinese agents in Beijing have what they asked for: an A.I. system that tracks American spies and others, said U.S. officials and a person with knowledge of the transaction, who shared the information on the condition that The Times not disclose the names of the contracting firms involved. At the same time, as spending on China at the C.I.A. has doubled since the start of the Biden administration, the United States has sharply stepped up its spying on Chinese companies and their technological advances.

如今，中国情报人员已得到了他们想要的东西：一个跟踪美国间谍和其他人的人工智能系统——据美国官员和一名知情人士对时报透露，条件是时报不公开所涉及的承包商公司的名字。与此同时，随着自拜登政府上台以来中情局增加了中国部门的支出，美国已大大加强了对中国企业及其技术进展的间谍活动。

This article is based on interviews with more than two dozen current and former American officials, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity, and a review of internal Chinese corporate documents and public M.S.S. documents.

为了这篇报道，记者采访了20多名现任和前任美国官员（其中大多数人要求不具名），查阅了中国公司的内部文件和国安部的公开文件。

A Game of Ghosts

阴影的游戏

The competition between the American and Chinese spy agencies harks back to the K.G.B.-versus-C.I.A. rivalry of the Cold War. In that era, the Soviets built an agency that could pilfer America’s most closely held secrets and run covert operations while also producing formidable political leaders, including Vladimir V. Putin, the president of Russia.

美中间谍机构的竞争让人回忆起冷战时期克格勃与中情局的较量。苏联在冷战时代建立起了克格勃，既有窃取美国最秘密的情报、开展秘密行动的能力，也培养了包括俄罗斯现任总统普京在内的难以对付的政治领导人。

But there is a notable difference. Because of China’s economic boom and industrial policies, the M.S.S. is able to use emerging technologies like A.I. to challenge American spymasters in a way the Soviets could not. And those technologies are top prizes in espionage efforts by China and the United States.

但有一个显着的区别。由于中国的经济繁荣和产业政策，它的国安部能使用人工智能等新兴技术来挑战美国间谍高手，这是苏联当时无法做到的。这些技术也是中美间谍活动力争得到的东西。

“For China in particular, exploiting the existing technology or trade secrets of others has become a popular shortcut encouraged by the government,” said Yun Sun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, a Washington-based research institute. “The urgency and intensity of technological espionage have increased significantly.”

“尤其是中国，利用他人现有的技术或商业秘密已成为受政府鼓励的广受欢迎的捷径，”华盛顿研究机构史汀生中心中国项目主任孙韵说。“技术间谍活动的紧迫性和强度已显著加大。”

The M.S.S. has intensified its intelligence collection on American companies developing technology with both military and civilian uses, while the C.I.A., in a change from even a few years ago, is pouring resources into collecting data on Chinese companies developing A.I., quantum computing and other such tools.

国安部已对开发军民两用技术的美国公司加强了情报收集工作，同时，中情局也改变了几年前的做法，正在投入大量资源收集研发人工智能、量子计算和其他类似工具的中国公司的数据。

Though the U.S. intelligence community has long collected economic intelligence, gathering detailed information on commercial technological advances outside of defense companies was once the kind of espionage the United States avoided.

尽管美国情报界长期以来一直在收集经济情报，但收集国防公司以外的商业技术发展的详细信息曾是美国间谍避免的活动。

But information about China’s development of emerging technologies is now considered as important as divining its conventional military might or the machinations of its leaders.

但现在，有关中国新兴技术发展的信息被视为与推测中国的常规军事实力或领导层的谋划一样重要。

David Cohen, the agency’s deputy director, said that under President Biden, the C.I.A. was making investments and reorganizing to meet the challenge of collecting on Chinese advances. The agency has started both a China mission center and a technology intelligence center.

中情局副局长戴维·科恩说，在拜登总统领导下，为了应对收集中国行动情报的挑战，该部门正在投入资源、进行重组。 它还设立了一个中国行动中心和一个技术情报中心。

“We’ve been counting tanks and understanding the capability of missiles for longer than we have been as sharply focused on the capability of semiconductors or A.I. algorithms or biotech equipment,” Mr. Cohen said in an interview.

“相比明显地关注半导体或人工智能方面的能力或生物技术设备，我们统计坦克数量、了解导弹能力的历史更长，”科恩在接受采访时说。

But some policymakers say privately that the effort is still falling short, and that Chinese companies and the military are surprising the U.S. government with their advances.

但一些政策制定者私下表示，目前的努力仍然不够，中国企业和军队在技术进步方面仍令美国政府惊讶。

In China, the status of the Ministry of State Security has only grown under Mr. Xi, who prizes bold intelligence action and a powerful security state.

中国对国安部的重视程度在习近平领导下一直在上升，习近平对大胆的情报行动和强大的安全国家都十分重视。

In October 2022, the Communist Party promoted the ministry’s head, Chen Wenqing, to be the party’s top security official and a member of the 24-member Politburo, the first spy chief in decades to ascend to that body. His replacement, Chen Yixin, a longtime aide to Mr. Xi, has raised the public profile of the M.S.S. He has also been given a broad mandate, which encompasses leading a crackdown on American and other foreign companies that conduct corporate investigations of Chinese firms, including for military ties and human rights violations.

2022年10月，中共将国安部部长陈文清提拔为中共的最高安全官员，他成了中共中央政治局的24名委员之一，这是负责间谍工作的人几十年首次进入政治局。陈文清的继任陈一新是习近平的长期助手，他已提高了国安部的公众形象。他还被授予广泛权力，领导了一场打击对中国公司进行企业调查的美国和其他外国公司的突袭，这些外企所做的这类调查内容包括企业与军方的关系以及侵犯人权行为。

The ministry has the foreign responsibilities of the C.I.A. and the domestic mandate of the F.B.I., combined with an authoritarian edge. The M.S.S. is charged with carrying out intelligence collection and operations overseas, as well as limiting foreign influence within China and clamping down on so-called subversive activities. Its mission is avowedly political: to defend the Communist Party against all perceived threats.

国安部承担着中情局在美国国外的职责以及美国联邦调查局在美国国内的职责，同时还拥有权威主义的优势。国安部负责情报收集以及在海外执行任务，还负责限制外国在中国的影响力活动、打击所谓的颠覆活动。其使命具有明显的政治性：捍卫中共免受所有可见的威胁。

The current minister, Mr. Chen, has repeatedly emphasized loyalty to Mr. Xi. In June, he told officers to “wholeheartedly embrace” Mr. Xi’s “core” status.’’

现任部长陈一新已多次强调了对习近平的忠诚。他曾于今年6月要求官员“感情上衷心拥戴”习近平的“核心”地位。

Under Mr. Chen, the ministry is embracing social media to spread messages about threats. “The United States’ multifaceted obstruction, containment and suppression will only make China more battle hardened and self-reliant,” it said on a new WeChat account.

在陈一新的领导下，国安部正在使用社交媒体传播有关安全威胁的信息。国安部在其新建的微信公众号上写道，“美国的百般阻挠、遏制打压，只会让中国愈战愈勇，更加自立自强。”

In August, the ministry made separate announcements asserting that it had caught two Chinese citizens spying for the C.I.A., one recruited by an American agent in Japan and the other in Italy. In October, the ministry and Chinese state television announced a case in which a researcher at a defense industry institute had been recruited by a U.S. agent while he was a visiting scholar at an American university. He then transferred copies of secret documents to the Americans after he returned to China, before being detained in 2021.

今年8月，国安部先后通报了两起案件，声称已抓获了两名为中情局从事间谍活动的中国公民，其中之一是美国特工在日本招募的，另一个是美国特工在意大利招募的。今年10月，国安部在中国的国家电视台上通报了另一起案件，称一名在国防军工单位工作的研究人员在美国大学做访问学者期间被美国特工招募。他返回中国后，将秘密文件的副本转交给美国人，此人已在2021年被抓。

The announcements suggested the C.I.A. had been rebuilding a network within China that Chinese counterintelligence officers decimated more than a decade ago.

这些通报暗示，中情局一直在中国境内重建一个十多年前被中国反情报官员摧毁的间谍网。

The C.I.A. does not say whether people detained overseas on espionage charges are spies for the United States. But at least some of the Chinese citizens detained were working for the United States, according to people briefed on American intelligence reports. There is no evidence, however, that the M.S.S. has cracked the network, they said, and the Italy case is more than a year old.

中情局没有表示这些因间谍罪在海外被逮捕的人是否是美国间谍。但据听过美国情报汇报的人士透露，至少有一些被抓的中国公民曾为美国工作。但他们说，没有证据表明国安部 已破获了间谍网，而且前面提到的那名在意大利招募的间谍的案件是一年多前的事情。

The M.S.S. is making its own aggressive moves abroad, including recruiting a far-right Belgian politician and harassing ethnic Chinese critics of the party. One agent hired a local private investigator to physically attack a Chinese American candidate for U.S. Congress on Long Island, according to a Justice Department indictment. Another man is accused of helping to set up an organization in New York that lured in dissidents.

中国国安部正在海外采取富于攻击性的行动，包括招募了一名比利时极右翼政客，骚扰批评中共的华裔人士。据美国司法部的起诉书，一名中国特工雇了一名当地私家侦探袭击了一名美籍华人，后者是长岛的一名美国国会议员候选人。另一名中国男子被指控帮助在纽约建立一个诱骗异见人士的组织。

A Chinese Agency on the Offense

一个主动出击的中国部门

The central government in Beijing established the Ministry of State Security in 1983 during a reshuffling of security units. For decades, the agency struggled to win favor with party leaders. Its Chinese rival, the intelligence services of the People’s Liberation Army, had greater resources and better tradecraft, especially in cyberespionage.

1983年，北京的中央政府在对一次机构改革中成立了国家安全部。几十年来，国安部始终难以赢得党的领导人的倚重。作为其竞争单位，解放军下属的情报部门拥有更多资源和更强大的间谍情报技术，尤其擅长网络间谍活动。

The Ministry of State Security gradually improved its tactics, got bigger budgets and even built business expertise. Some M.S.S. officers who would be working under cover as business people were sent to private sector offices for training, said Peter Mattis, a former C.I.A. analyst and co-author of a book on Chinese espionage.

国安部逐渐改进策略，获得了更多预算，甚至还打造出商业专长。一本关于中国间谍活动的著作的合著者、前中情局分析师彼得·马蒂斯表示，部分国安会在伪装成商人执行卧底任务前被派往私企接受培训。

Chinese agents also expanded their foreign recruitment targets, including among U.S. citizens.

中国特工还扩大了海外招募目标，其中包括美国公民。

U.S. intelligence agencies were alarmed after discovering that the Shanghai M.S.S. had recruited an American student in China, Glenn Duffie Shriver, and got him to apply to the C.I.A. and State Department. Mr. Shriver was sentenced in 2011 to four years in prison. “It was a big sign of improved tradecraft from M.S.S., for the first time targeting non-Chinese Americans and attempting penetration of the U.S. intelligence community,” said John Culver, a former U.S. intelligence analyst.

这引起了美国情报机构的警觉，因为此前它发现上海市国家安全局招募了美国在华留学生格伦·达菲·施赖弗，指使他应聘中情局和国务院的职位。施赖弗于2011年被判处四年有期徒刑。“这是国安部提升谍报手段的一个重要标志，因其首次针对了非华裔的美国人，并试图渗透美国情报界，”美国前情报分析师约翰·卡尔弗说。

The case has had far-reaching consequences. It made U.S. counterintelligence officers more suspicious of applicants for U.S. government jobs who had studied in China or had contacts there, and it turned their attention to M.S.S. provincial bureaus.

此案影响极为深远，让美国的反情报官员对那些曾在中国留学或与中国有联系的美国政府职位申请者产生更多疑虑，并将注意力转向了国安部的省级单位。

The bureaus are their own fiefs, based outside of the agency’s national headquarters, which is in the secretive Xiyuan compound of northwest Beijing. Under Mr. Xi, they have become more aggressive in operations overseas, with some specializing in recruiting and running informants in the United States.

这些地方上的国安部门有各自的管辖范围，办公地点并不在国安部位于北京西北部保密严格的西苑机关大院里。在习近平任内，这些机构的海外行动变得更加积极，其中一些专门负责在美国招募和管理线人。

The bureau in Jiangsu Province, next to Shanghai, is another one focused on getting American secrets, and particularly defense technologies, U.S. officials said.

美国官员透露，毗邻上海的江苏省国家安全厅是另一个将获取美国机密，尤其是国防技术当作重点任务的情报单位。

Its officers recruited Ji Chaoqun shortly before he went to the United States in 2013 to study engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, according to the Justice Department and court documents. His M.S.S. handler, Xu Yanjun, got him to provide the names of at least nine people in the United States for the Chinese spy agency to try to recruit to get aerospace and satellite technologies.

根据司法部和法庭文件，江苏国安在2013年招募了一名留学生季超群，当时他即将赴芝加哥的伊利诺伊理工学院留学。他的国安上线联络人徐延军让他提供了至少九名在美人士的姓名，以便国安部进行招募，目的是获取美国的航空航天及卫星技术。

Mr. Ji eventually joined the U.S. Army Reserves, where he aimed to get a security clearance so he could eventually apply to work in the C.I.A., F.B.I. or N.A.S.A. He was arrested in Chicago in 2018 and sentenced this year to eight years in prison. Mr. Xu, his handler, was arrested in Brussels in 2018, in a related operation run by the F.B.I., becoming the first M.S.S. agent to be extradited to the United States.

季超群最终加入了美国陆军预备役，并在军中努力试图获得安全许可，以最终申请进入中情局、联邦调查局或美国宇航局工作。他于2018年在芝加哥被捕，今年被判处八年有期徒刑。2018年，他的上线徐延军在联邦调查局的一项相关行动中于布鲁塞尔被捕，成为首位引渡美国受审的国安人员。

Unlike Russian operatives, M.S.S. case officers generally avoid working undercover in the United States, preferring instead to run agents or assets from outside and recruit online, including using jobs ads with no apparent ties to China, U.S. officials said.

美国官员表示，与俄罗斯特工不同，国安通常不会在美国做卧底，而是更倾向于在美国境外安排代理人或资源，并在网上进行招募，手段包括与中国没有明显联系的招聘广告。

Around 2018, a Singaporean agent for the M.S.S. “created a fake consulting company that used the same name as a prominent U.S. consulting firm and posted online job ads under that company name,” said Michael C. Casey, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center.

2018年前后，一名新加坡籍国安“编造了一家假的咨询公司，盗用了一家知名美国咨询公司的名字，并以后者的名义在网上发布招聘广告”，国家反情报与安全中心主任迈克尔·凯西表示。

The Scramble for Tech

科技争夺战

The M.S.S. often directly hires from universities, especially for core positions, according to a review of more than 30 online job ads from the agency. In recent years, it has sought technology experts, including hackers, according to two people with knowledge of the recruiting efforts.

对国安部门发布的30多条网络招聘广告的调查发现，国安通常直接从大学招聘人员，尤其是在核心岗位。据两名了解招聘内情的人士透露，国安近年来一直在招募包括黑客在内的科技人才。

Beijing’s most acute worry is that the United States and its allies could choke China off from technological know-how vital for economic and military growth. Mr. Xi has stressed that risk.

北京方面的最大的担忧就是美国及其盟友会阻止中国获得对经济和军事发展至关重要的技术知识。习近平已经强调过这一风险。

Mr. Chen, the minister of state security, wrote in an article in September that “core technologies” remained under the control of other nations, and that reaching “technological self-reliance” was an urgent task.

国安部部长陈一新在9月发表的文章中表示，“核心技术”受制于人的局面仍未改变，实现“科技自立自强”仍是当前的重要紧迫任务。

Chinese government experts openly admire the collection capabilities of American spy agencies and their technology. Chinese intelligence journals often carry studies examining U.S. operations. A recent study of U.S. national security services by the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, the main M.S.S. research institute, said, “Drawing on an in-depth assessment of the relevant methods of the United States, China should choose what works and dispense with what does not.”

中国官方专家会公开称赞美国间谍机构的情报收集能力及其技术。中国情报期刊经常发表关于美国间谍行动的研究报告。直属国安部的研究机构中国现代国际关系研究院在最近对美国国家安全部门进行的一项研究中表示，“中国在深入评估美国相关做法的基础上应有所扬弃。”

The M.S.S. has also been elevating experts on the United States. Early this year, one such analyst, Yuan Peng, president of the main research institute, appeared under a new name, Yuan Yikun, as a vice minister of the ministry itself. Earlier in his career, Mr. Yuan often mixed with American scholars, some of whom saw him as a coolheaded observer of Washington.

国安部也在一直提拔研究美国问题的专家。上述研究院院长袁鹏正是这样一位专家，今年年初，他易名为袁亦鲲，出任国安部副部长一职。在其职业生涯早期，袁亦鲲经常与美国学者打交道，这些学者中有部分人认为，他对美国的观察是十分理性的。

While president of the research institute, Mr. Yuan became a champion of Mr. Xi’s sweeping concept of “overall national security,” which casts the United States as the main threat to China’s ascent.

在担任中国现代国际关系研究院院长期间，袁亦鲲大力拥护习近平“总体国家安全观”的宽泛理念，将美国视为中国崛起的主要威胁。

“Biden said ‘America is back,’ but the world is not the same as it was, and if it can’t keep up with massive global changes, then this changing world will inevitably slip from U.S. control,” Mr. Yuan wrote in an international strategy assessment published in early 2022. “In judging current American grand strategy a few decades from now, its biggest mistake may be seen as choosing China as an enemy.”

“拜登说‘美国回来了’，但世界已不是原来那个世界。跟不上世局的巨变，则变化的世局必然会脱出美国的控驭，”袁亦鲲在2022年初发表的国际战略评估中写道。“如果几十年后来评判今日美国大战略，其最大的错误可能是选择与中国为敌。”

‘Think Like a Wall Street Analyst’

“像华尔街分析师一样思考”

One of the first major decisions by William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, was to create the China Mission Center. The idea was to ensure that stations all over the world, not just in Asia, focused on collecting intelligence on China.

中情局局长威廉·伯恩斯上任后做出的首批重大决策之一就是成立中国任务中心，旨在让世界各地——不仅限于亚洲——的中情局站点都专注于收集有关中国的情报。

Mr. Burns took the step after a strategic review that was led by Michael Collins, a career intelligence officer. Under Mr. Burns, Mr. Collins was appointed director of strategy, with a mandate to help improve the agency’s work on China.

当整个职业生涯都在担任情报官员的迈克尔·柯林斯带头完成一项战略评估后，伯恩斯迈出了这一步。在伯恩斯的领导下，柯林斯被任命为战略总监，负责帮助改进中情局的对华工作。

The China challenge requires the United States “to be smart on critical domains like biotechnology and semiconductors,” said Mr. Collins, who now leads the National Intelligence Council, a coordinating body across spy agencies. “We have to be better.’’

中国带来的挑战要求美国“机敏审慎地对待生物技术和半导体等关键领域”，现负责领导国家情报委员会的柯林斯说，该委员会是横跨了多个间谍机构的协调单位。“我们必须做得更好。”

To get a sharper understanding of which technologies China is targeting, the C.I.A. has begun asking American executives and scholars for insights about what Chinese companies are trying to develop. American universities and companies, often approached by Chinese investors and researchers, have knowledge of the specific technologies, U.S. officials said.

为了更清楚地掌握中国盯上了哪些技术，中情局已开始向美企高管及学者咨询中国企业正试图开发何种技术的内情。美国官员表示，中国投资者和研究人员经常与掌握特定技术的美国大学和企业接洽。

But officials said it was important to bring in people with deeper knowledge of China’s commercial and technological ambitions. For now the spy agencies are struggling to get information to policymakers as quickly as they want it.

但官员们表示，引入对中国商业及技术雄心有更深入了解的人才非常重要。目前，情报机构仍很难以理想的速度向决策者提供信息。

Last year, a Canadian firm, TechInsights, revealed that China’s leading chip maker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, had developed a seven-nanometer chip. The U.S. government was unaware of the advance and was surprised that the Chinese firm had made the leap so quickly, said Jimmy Goodrich, an expert on Chinese technology who advises the RAND Corporation.

加拿大公司TechInsights去年爆料称，领先中国的芯片制造商中芯国际已成功研发出一款7纳米芯片。为兰德公司提供咨询的中国技术专家吉米·古德里奇表示，美国政府并不了解这一进展，也对这家中国企业能如此迅速地取得突破感到惊讶。

“The intelligence community is just not set up institutionally to be adept at understanding China’s commercial and tech issues,” he said “It’s hard to do. And more important, you really have to think like a Wall Street analyst, market researcher, talking to everyone up and down the supply chain.”

“情报部门体制设计的初衷不是为了了解中国的商业和科技问题，”他说，“这是很难实现的目标。更重要的是，这要你必须像华尔街分析师和市场研究员一样思考，与供应链上下游的各环节保持沟通。”

(A U.S. official said American intelligence agencies had assessed that the company had at least the capability to produce the smaller chip before the Canadian report.)

（一名美国官员表示，在该加拿大公司发布报告前，美国情报机构的评估显示，中芯国际绝对有能力制造这种较小型芯片。）

Part of the problem is that U.S. intelligence agencies favor information from satellites, intercept programs and human spies. One senior U.S. official said analysts were overlooking valuable insight from nonclassified sources in China.

部分难题在于，美国情报机构更看重卫星、拦截计划和特工间谍提供的信息。一位美国高官表示，分析人员忽视了来自中国非机密消息源的宝贵见解。

“The U.S. intelligence community can do amazing things on focused targets,” said Mr. Mattis, the former C.I.A. analyst. “But it sometimes can struggle with broad-based awareness like understanding China’s technology prowess.”

“对于重点目标，美国情报界的能力是非常惊人的，”前中情局分析师马蒂斯说。“但有时候它会在如何形成更宽泛的认识方面遇到困难，比如了解中国的技术实力。”