The Sixth Bureau 6. Nothing Is Holy
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Mar 23, 2026 A tense recounting of a chilling phone connection and the web of aliases that led to a major intelligence arrest. Follow the ripple effects of that capture across U.S. prosecutions and a controversial prisoner swap. Experts debate ethics of industrial espionage, China's tech rise, and whether spycraft would change if global power shifted.
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Live Call To Xu's Number Ended With A Hangup
- Drake Bennett and Jordan Robertson called phone numbers tied to Xu Yanjun and one rang with silence before a person picked up and hung up when asked if he was Xu.
- The call used a Bloomberg burner phone and the voice matched Xu's accent, suggesting they may have reached him in Nanjing after his release.
Undercover FBI Replaced Shu To Arrest Ji In Hotel Sting
- An undercover FBI agent posed as an MSS handler and lured Ji Chao Chun to three meetings until two plainclothes agents arrested him in a hotel room.
- Ji was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to eight years for acting as an agent of a foreign government.
Xu's Arrest Triggered A Multiyear MSS Pause
- Xu's arrest caused the MSS to pause industrial espionage operations for roughly three years to find the compromise.
- FBI counterintelligence lead Alan Kohler explained the pause protected other sources while China investigated how Xu had been caught.