Big Take The Sixth Bureau Episode 6: Nothing Is Holy
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Mar 20, 2026 A tense hunt for collaborators tied to a jailed Chinese intelligence officer. An eerie phone call sparks a major discovery. How arrests, prosecutions and a prisoner swap reshaped spy operations. Debates over the China Initiative and whether the rules of industrial espionage are changing.
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Unexpected Live Call To Xu's Number
- Bloomberg called numbers tied to Xu Yanjun and unexpectedly reached someone who answered and hung up when asked if he was Xu.
- The call used a burner phone from Bloomberg and the person had a Jiangsu accent, matching Xu's known voice traits.
Undercover FBI Posed As Xu's Replacement Handler
- An undercover FBI agent posed as an MSS handler and convinced Ji Chao Chun he was Xu's new handler after Xu's arrest.
- That undercover operation led to Ji's 2018 arrest and eventual 8-year sentence in 2022.
Xu's Arrest Forced A Three Year MSS Pause
- Xu's arrest triggered a near-immediate pause in MSS industrial espionage operations across the U.S. as China tried to find the leak.
- Alan Kohler says the pause lasted roughly three years while MSS reassessed tradecraft and exposures revealed by the case.