The Sixth Bureau, Episode 1: Your Friend From Nanjing

Summary

Big Take Podcast: The Sixth Bureau

Episode 1: Your Friend From Nanjing

Release Date: February 13, 2026
Hosts: Jordan Robertson & Drake Bennett (Bloomberg News and iHeartPodcasts)

Episode Overview

The premiere episode of “The Sixth Bureau” plunges listeners into the clandestine world of Chinese espionage—specifically through the lens of a real-life FBI operation targeting the Ministry of State Security (MSS), China’s main spy agency. Using actual surveillance recordings and fresh interviews, the episode details how U.S. law enforcement lured Chinese intelligence officer Xu Yanjun to his historic arrest and, in doing so, exposed the workings of the world’s largest spy agency. The episode uses the story of Ji Chao Chun, a Chinese agent in the U.S., to pull listeners inside this game of deception, trust, and technological ambition.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene: The Sting Operation

• The episode opens with actual FBI surveillance audio of April 25, 2018, as an undercover agent (posing as “Chen”) approaches Ji Chao Chun in Chicago.
• The initial exchange is tense:
  • “Are you Ji Qiaoqin?” (Chen, 01:09)
  • Ji is wary and confused at first, until Chen uses a coded phrase:
    • “A friend from Nanjing sent me to you.” (Chen, 01:37)
  • The code works; Ji’s guard drops:
    • “Oh, I get it now.” (Ji Chao Chun, 01:50)
• The agents maneuver Ji into a hotel, all under heavy FBI surveillance (02:20–03:45).

2. The Big Reveal: Xu Yanjun’s Arrest

• In the hotel, Chen delivers alarming news: Ji’s MSS handler, Xu Yanjun, has been arrested in Belgium (04:24–04:56).
• Ji must now trust Chen and follow new communication protocols. He is warned to cut all prior contacts and only use a new cell phone (05:25–05:40).
  • “So they sent me here to talk to you. But at this time, please stay low key.” (Chen, 05:53)
• The interaction is revealed to be an elaborate FBI sting. Ji doesn’t realize Chen is undercover, nor that he’s now tangled in a vast investigation (07:00–07:14).

3. The MSS Unveiled and Its Global Reach

• Xu Yanjun’s arrest is historic:
  • “Xu Yanjun was the first intelligence officer ever to be lured out of China, arrested, and tried in the US.” (Ji Chao Chun, 08:05)
• The FBI gains unprecedented access—thousands of emails, classified documents, even Xu’s personal diary, offering a rare look inside MSS Russian-doll-like secrecy (08:16–08:48).
  • “It was just strange the way he kept records of everything—not only what happened, but his own feelings about them.” (Expert/Analyst, 08:30–08:34)
  • “I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer ... that’s a unicorn.” (Expert/Analyst, 08:34–08:48)

4. China’s Quest for Technology: The Jet Engine

• The episode spotlights the MSS’s mission: to steal technology (specifically, jet engine secrets) the Chinese government had long pursued (09:17–09:29).
  • “China has said this is a national priority that we get this information. The MSS was tasked to do it.” (Expert/Analyst, 09:17)
• Xu Yanjun ran a sprawling network, coordinating theft of corporate secrets worldwide:
  • “Xu is basically out there trying to steal corporate secrets, is doing that with the full support and cooperation of his government.” (Expert/Analyst, 09:31)

5. The Stakes in the New Espionage War

• The scale and consequences of Chinese espionage are underscored with urgency:
  • “If the American people truly understood the scope of Chinese espionage inside the United States right now, they'd be shocked. They'd be outraged.” (FBI Official/Commentator, 10:00)
  • “It represents one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history.” (Expert/Analyst, 10:15)
  • “They want to replace the United States as the world's only superpower. And they're on track...” (Expert/Analyst, 10:36)

6. The Global Implications

• The episode closes with reflections on how spycraft, technological theft, and U.S.–China rivalry are reshaping the global order:
  • “We're witnessing the formation of a new world order. And one thing's clear: China is the new economic and military superpower alongside the US.” (Ji Chao Chun, 10:43)
  • “Not that long ago, the US was still ahead ... That time has passed. China’s caught up, thanks to a ton of investment, talent, innovation, and one more thing. Spying.” (Ji Chao Chun, 11:00)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On secrecy and tradecraft:
  • “The MSS is believed to be the world's largest intelligence agency. But the people who work there are basically ghosts.” (Ji Chao Chun, 07:46)
• On the scale of espionage:
  • “If the American people truly understood the scope of Chinese espionage inside the United States right now, they'd be shocked. They'd be outraged.” (FBI Official/Commentator, 10:00)
• On what was unlocked by Xu Yanjun’s arrest:
  • “I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt ... that’s a unicorn.” (Expert/Analyst, 08:34)
• On the stakes:
  • “They want to replace the United States as the world's only superpower. And they're on track to do what they're claiming they're going to do.” (Expert/Analyst, 10:36)
• On emerging world order:
  • “There’s a lot of change and straight up chaos happening right now ... we are witnessing the formation of a new world order.” (Ji Chao Chun, 10:43)

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Highlighted Timestamps

• 01:37 — “A friend from Nanjing sent me to you.” (Undercover agent's key code phrase)
• 04:24 — Introduction of Xu Yanjun arrest and the handover of a Belgian newspaper article
• 05:53 — “Please stay low key ... like nothing had happened at normal.” (Instructions to Ji)
• 07:14 — Reveal that much of what Chen told Ji was false; Xu Yanjun truly was arrested
• 08:16–08:48 — FBI and experts discuss the treasure trove of MSS documentation obtained
• 09:17–09:45 — Focus on China’s hunt for jet engine technology
• 10:00–10:43 — The impact of Chinese espionage and the shift in global power

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Episode Tone & Style

The episode is cinematic and tense, frequently cutting between real audio, cold analysis, and first-person reflections. The tone is urgent and revelatory, drawing listeners into the jittery, high-stakes atmosphere of counterintelligence operations and global rivalry.

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Next Episode Teaser

The episode ends with a preview of next week’s focus: how the FBI exploits agents’ vulnerabilities and the wider impact of this intelligence breach on U.S. military secrets.

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Summary by The Big Take Podcast Summarizer

Transcript

[Narrator]

Bloomberg audio studios podcasts radio news.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

Today date is Wednesday, April 25, 2018. The time is 3:12pm the following is a consensual week body recording with the subject Ji Chao Chun. The recording starts now.

[Ji Chao Chun]

There's a guy sitting in a red Chevy Malibu in front of an apartment complex near downtown Chicago. He's waiting for someone to walk out of the apartment building. After a few minutes, the person does. He's young and he's wearing a warm up jacket and glasses. He has a buzz cut. His name is Ji Chao Chun. The guy in the red car gets out, walks toward Ji and yells to him in Mandarin.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

Are you Ji Qiaoqin? Yes. Hi.

[Narrator]

Hi.

[Ji Chao Chun]

How may I help you?

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

Is it a good time to talk?

[Ji Chao Chun]

I beg your pardon?

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

There's something I'd like to talk to you about.

[FBI Surveillance Agent]

We were all holding our breath because this is that interaction that we've prepared for.

[Narrator]

The two men are being watched.

[FBI Surveillance Agent]

Xi's a little confused, a little flustered, and you can see that in his body language, he keeps his distance.

[Commercial Announcer]

You are.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

A friend from Nanjing sent me to you.

[Narrator]

This reference to Nanjing, it's code. It's a way of saying, hey, we know the same people. And g. He understands it.

[Ji Chao Chun]

Oh, I get it now.

[FBI Surveillance Agent]

I think at that point, Ji's demeanor relaxed and their body language got closer.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

Is it a good time to talk?

[Ji Chao Chun]

Roughly, how long will it take?

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

My car is parked over there in red.

[Ji Chao Chun]

No problem. No problem.

[Narrator]

The two men walk towards the red car and get in.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

I'm not sure if you are aware something went down with the friends in Nanjin.

[Ji Chao Chun]

I am not aware.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

Do you know whom I am referring to?

[Narrator]

She hesitates. The man pulls out his phone.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

Let me show you this.

[Ji Chao Chun]

I have heard of him.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

Have you heard that something happened to him recently?

[Ji Chao Chun]

I am not aware. The stranger says his name is Chen and suggests that the two of them go somewhere more private than his car. He says he has a room at the Hyatt, which is nearby. At first, Ji tries to get out of it. I really don't have time right now. I apologize, but Chen pushes back. This is important.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

When people have issues such as this talk with you, they come to me. But I do not want to talk too much about it because.

[Ji Chao Chun]

Okay, I understand. Ji gives in.

[FBI Surveillance Agent]

They drive to the hotel and it was immediate. Let's start moving. Let's start getting into place. So at that point, I left for the hotel and got to the lobby.

[Narrator]

Chen parks the car and the two men walk into the hotel.

[FBI Surveillance Agent]

I am simply A spectator sitting near the hotel bar and enjoying my afternoon. But my true goal is to keep my eyes on the two individuals that are briskly walking into the hotel lobby and making their way to the elevator.

[Narrator]

The two men take the elevator up to a room. Ji sits down at a small table at the foot of the unmade bed.

[FBI Surveillance Agent]

We'd already gone into the hotel room and placed a camera.

[Narrator]

Chen takes off his coat and drapes it over a chair. He's dressed like an accountant. A blue button down khakis and a cell phone holster. He closes the curtains, but that plunges the room into complete darkness. So he reopens them. They both laugh awkwardly.

[Ji Chao Chun]

Chen sits down. He pulls a sheet of paper out of his pocket, unfolds it and hands it across the table. It's a recent article from a Belgian newspaper. Chinese spy arrested in Brussels at the request of the United States the spy is Xu Yanjun. The same person. Chen name dropped Ji back in his car. Ji knows Shu Yanjun well. Xu works for China's Ministry of State Security, or mss, and so does Ji. Both of them are spies.

[FBI Surveillance Agent]

We were aware of Ji Qiao Chun's relationship with his MSS handler, Xu Yanjun. Our goal was to use the information that his handler was arrested.

[Narrator]

Chen tells Ji that the friends in Nanjing don't know how Shu Yanjun's cover was blown.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

We don't know if the problem was with your communications with them. We don't know why is the US onto him.

[Commercial Announcer]

So.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

So I was sent to let you know to stop contacting them for now.

[Ji Chao Chun]

Okay? Chen warns Ji, you could now be in danger. He hands Ji a cell phone. He says Ji should only contact him from now on and only on this device.

[FBI Surveillance Agent]

Your handler was arrested. Don't talk to anybody else at this time. Any information that you need to relay back should go through me.

[Ji Chao Chun]

Chen's making it clear I am now the only person you can trust.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

So they sent me here to talk to you. But at this time, please stay low key. Don't send them any text messages. Don't send them WeChat messages, don't email them because we don't know where things went wrong. So, like nothing had happened at normal.

[Narrator]

The two men leave the hotel room and Chen drives Ji back to his apartment. Before Jie gets out of the car, Chen makes sure he has the cell phone.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

Did you grab the cell phone?

[Ji Chao Chun]

Yes, it's in my pocket. Thank you for your help.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

Give me a bit of time. Don't tell anyone about this, okay?

[Narrator]

The whole interaction lasts about two hours. Chen drives off, parks and speaks into a hidden microphone.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

Today day is April 25, 2018. The time is 5:03pm Ending the consensual monitoring.

[Ji Chao Chun]

What G didn't know that afternoon was that this stranger off the street who knew his name and his biggest secret was actually an undercover FBI agent. And the person watching them was an agent too.

[Narrator]

A lot of what the undercover agent had said to Xi was a lie. But one key detail was true. Xu Yanjun, Ji's MSS handler had been.

[Expert/Analyst]

Arrested to announce federal criminal charges for conspiracy to commit economic espionage and theft of trade secrets.

[Narrator]

Xu wasn't just Xi's handler. He was running MSS operations all over the world. And he was at the center of one of the most significant spy rings the FBI has ever taken down.

[Ji Chao Chun]

The MSS is believed to be the world's largest intelligence agency. But the people who work there are basically ghosts. We rarely learn their names, and even when we do, it's usually an alias. Xu Yanjun was the first intelligence officer ever to be lured out of China, arrested and tried in the us.

[FBI Official/Commentator]

We had never been able to convict in the United States and put in prison a staff MSS officer. So it was very clear to me that we were making history.

[Ji Chao Chun]

What this case cracked open for the first time was a view from inside the mss, revealing thousands of pages of emails, chats, audio recordings, classified Chinese government documents, even Xu's personal diary.

[Expert/Analyst]

It was just strange the way he.

[Commercial Announcer]

Kept records of everything.

[Expert/Analyst]

Not only what happened, but his own feelings about them. I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question of his life, and that's a unicorn.

[Narrator]

At the heart of Xu's mission was an advanced technology that China has been after for years, one that has proven uniquely difficult to copy, much less surpass. Ready for takeoff? Ready for takeoff, sir. There you go. The jet engine. The jet engine. One of the marvels of this century of marvels. It was a marvel when it was invented over 80 years ago, and it still is today. Only a few countries in the world know how to make them really well.

[Expert/Analyst]

China has said this is a national priority that we get this information. The MSS was tasked to do it. It fell down to Xuanzhou at that time.

[Ji Chao Chun]

He's right out of central casting.

[Expert/Analyst]

Xu is basically out there trying to steal corporate secrets, is doing that with the full support and cooperation of his government. He did it multiple times over multiple years, right through an extensive network around the world.

[FBI Surveillance Agent]

These are things that could be catastrophic.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

The idea that we could get Xu.

[Ji Chao Chun]

It opens up so many doors to.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

Understanding what, what the Chinese government is.

[Ji Chao Chun]

Up to, what information they have about.

[Undercover FBI Agent (Chen)]

Us, how they work.

[Ji Chao Chun]

It's like a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity.

[FBI Official/Commentator]

If the American people truly understood the scope of Chinese espionage inside the United States right now, they'd be shocked. They'd be outraged.

[Expert/Analyst]

It's the people of the United States who are the victims of what amounts.

[Narrator]

To Chinese theft on a scale so.

[Expert/Analyst]

Massive that it represents one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history. Stealing American technology, giving it to Chinese companies who can then undercut American companies, and Americans go out of business. That is their stated goal. They want to replace the United States as the world's only superpower. And they're on track to do what they're claiming they're going to do.

[Ji Chao Chun]

There's a lot of change and straight up chaos happening right now. Some of it may end up being noise, but we are witnessing the formation of a new world order. And one thing's clear, China is the new economic and military superpower alongside the US the two countries have been going head to head for the last few decades. Not that long ago, the US was still ahead of China in almost every advanced technology. That time has passed. China's caught up in so many ways, thanks to a ton of investment, talent, innovation, and one more thing. Spying. From Bloomberg News and iHeart podcast, this is the Sixth Bureau. I'm Jordan Robertson.

[Narrator]

And I'm Drake Bennett. This is a story of the inner workings of one of the world's most mysterious and and powerful spy agencies. And how one man's ambition and mistakes opened its vault of secrets. On the next episode.

[FBI Official/Commentator]

We are in the business of exploiting your weakness, your needs, your vulnerabilities. And we're good at it.

[Ji Chao Chun]

That recording was almost dumb luck. I cannot believe they didn't turn that.

[Expert/Analyst]

Recording off the helicopter. That the Marine Corps is going to fly the next level helicopter. There's no reason that the Chinese government needs to know the specifications of that. There's no reason an employee of any American company should be prepared to pass that sort of information over.

[Ji Chao Chun]

Foreign.

[Commercial Announcer]

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