The Sixth Bureau, Episode 2: The Spy’s Diary

Summary

Podcast Summary: Big Take – The Sixth Bureau, Episode 2: The Spy’s Diary

Date: February 13, 2026
Hosts: Jordan Robertson & Drake Bennett
Produced by: Bloomberg & iHeartPodcasts

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Overview

This episode delves into the intricate and astonishing personal diary kept by Xu Yanjun, a Chinese spy from the Ministry of State Security (MSS), and uses it to explore the inner workings of China’s intelligence apparatus—particularly the MSS’s role in industrial espionage. Through recounting Xu’s daily entries and interviews with US investigators and intelligence experts, the episode reveals both how the MSS targets key Western technologies and the surprisingly long, patient methods it uses. It also uncovers the extensive and sometimes mundane details that inform high-stakes international spying.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Xu Yanjun’s Diary: An Unexpected Window into a Spy’s Life

• Xu maintained a meticulous online calendar and diary, recording not only work meetings and covert operations but also gambling losses, karaoke nights, family outings, and romantic entanglements.
  • [03:32] Xu (Diary): “June 11, morning eyeglasses prescription. March 6. The whole family worshiped the Buddha at Jinming Temple…”
  • [04:11] Xu (Diary): “July 15, afternoon purchase the house, signed contract. May 25, morning family day at Xiao Xiao’s kindergarten. Hike Zijin Mountain. June 25, afternoon Midao music festival.”
• Hosts and analysts were struck by the intimacy and candor of these entries, a unique window into the personal life of an intelligence officer.

2. The Complex Personal Life of a Chinese Spy

• Xu’s diary revealed a penchant for gambling and infidelity.
  • [05:29] Drake Bennett: “Hsu was married, but wasn’t the most faithful husband.”
• Emojis as code: Xu refers to a mistress as “peach” for discretion and records rendezvous with her.
  • [05:43] Xu (Diary): “December 30 evening peach the beginning Wanda Hilton… Peach was drunk and took her home.”
• Narrator describes Xu as “complicated” with a mix of ordinary and secretive behaviors.

3. The 6th Bureau and China’s Industrial Espionage

• China’s MSS is described as enormous, with hundreds of thousands of employees—much larger than the FBI and CIA combined.
  • [10:29] Jordan Robertson: “It’s way bigger than the FBI and the CIA combined. And it has an additional job … industrial espionage. Stealing stuff from companies instead of governments.”
• The policy roots: China’s industrial espionage is linked to national initiatives like Made in China 2025, meant to close technology gaps with the West.

4. How the MSS Targets Western Experts

• Federal Prosecutor Matthew McKenzie explains:
  • [11:04] McKenzie: “Everyone does espionage, but not every country uses their intelligence apparatus to steal commercial trade secrets. That is beyond the norms.”
• Case Study: Arthur Gao, a Taiwanese-American Honeywell engineer, was targeted for two decades, initially under the pretext of academic exchanges, then through persistent recruitment and payments.
  • [14:20] McKenzie: “Arthur thinks he’s talking to all of these academics and students. And it turns out that they are no academics, there are no students.”

5. Xu’s Spycraft: The “Taxonomy of Sources”

• Xu describes four levels of Western collaborators:

  1. High-level, reliable experts—can directly aid in projects, kept on the payroll for years.
     • [16:45] Xu: “There are a few aspects to our collaboration… This expert is ranked highly and is reliable.”
  2. Consultants—brought in occasionally, on-call for one-off problems or projects.
  3. Topical experts—provide expertise for short durations or in reports, least committed but most common.
  4. Spotters—people living in the West whose job is to find and assess other engineers as potential sources.
  • [27:22] Drake Bennett: “Level one is kind of like having someone who works for you directly over a period of time. Level two? … Level three? That’s even less of a commitment… Level four, spotters.”

6. Tactics: Carrots, Sticks, and the Long Game

• James Olson (former CIA):
  • [18:19] Olson: “It sounds terrible, but we are in the business of exploiting your weakness, your needs, your vulnerabilities. And we’re good at it.”
  • [19:07] Drake Bennett: “Sometimes exploiting vulnerabilities is a matter of carrots, but sometimes it sticks.”
• Examples:
  • Invitations under academic pretexts, lavish hospitality.
  • Threats or pressure via family in China.
  • Long periods of cultivation; if a potential source resists, recruiters simply return later.

7. Dramatic Case Narratives

• Arthur Gao’s Story:
  • Targeted for two decades, eventually succumbed to MSS recruitment.
  • Handed envelopes of cash, received subtle pressures, provided engineering secrets.
  • [23:56] Drake Bennett: “In 2021, Arthur Gao was indicted and pled guilty to exporting controlled information…”
• Li Jiang’s Story:
  • Fêted at banquets while MSS attempted to hack his laptop.
  • Unwittingly shared sensitive expertise.
• Ji Qiao Chun—the enthusiastic young “spotter”:
  • Recruited in China, sent to the US for grad school, brashly pursued local tech talent on behalf of the MSS.
  • Flashy, reckless, and strategic in his ambitions (even joining the US Army to gain security clearance).
  • [33:14] Olson: “He was fired up. He really wanted to do this. It’s kind of fun being a spy.”
  • Ji’s communication with his father mixes requests for sea cucumbers with updates on secret cash payments.

8. The Human Side and Vulnerabilities

• Even as cogs in a vast machine, Xu and his fellow spies remain subject to everyday worries, ambitions, and anxieties.
• [37:16] Xu (Diary): “At the end of the day, we are all serving the state. We’re all serving the state, right? Everyone. We all share the same goal.”
• Narrator describes the “yo-yoing” of Xu’s mood and evaluation at work, showing the intense pressure facing even high-level agents.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On MSS’s Size and Scope:
  • [10:29] Jordan Robertson: “It’s way bigger than the FBI and the CIA combined. And it has an additional job … industrial espionage.”
• On Exploiting Human Vulnerabilities:
  • [18:19] James Olson: “It sounds terrible, but we are in the business of exploiting your weakness, your needs, your vulnerabilities. And we’re good at it.”
• Xu’s Motivation:
  • [37:16] Xu (Diary): “At the end of the day, we are all serving the state.”
• Diaries as Spycraft:
  • [06:43] Drake Bennett: “It’s normal enough to keep a diary, but Xu’s recording things that are supposed to be secret, deniable things about his job and how he does it. It’s an actual spy’s diary, and we got our hands on it.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [03:02] – Introduction to Xu Yanjun’s intimate diary
• [10:29] – China’s MSS explained; industrial espionage focus
• [11:04] – Unusual extent of China’s commercial espionage
• [14:20] – Arthur Gao’s secret recruitment revealed
• [16:45] – Xu explains his “taxonomy of sources”
• [18:19] – James Olson discusses exploiting human weaknesses
• [23:56] – Legal consequences for Arthur Gao
• [27:22] – The four levels of foreign experts detailed
• [32:26] – Ji Qiao Chun’s recruitment and activities as a “spotter”
• [37:16] – Xu’s motivation: “We are all serving the state”

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Concluding Insights

• The episode provides an unparalleled look into the daily life, emotional turmoil, and operational methods of a professional Chinese spy.
• It underscores the immense patience and sophistication of the MSS in cultivating sources over decades—with both incentives and threats.
• The personal stories humanize individuals caught in the machinery of state espionage, exposing not just clandestine maneuvering but private foibles, ambitions, and pressures.

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For a deeper understanding of how industrial secrets are hunted—and the surprising banality of everyday spycraft—this episode is a compelling, granular companion to headlines about global espionage.

Transcript

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Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio News A.

[Jordan Robertson]

Few quick notes before we get started it's customary in Chinese for family names to come before given names, so with Xu Yanjun, Xu is his family name and Yanjun is his given name. But almost everyone we spoke to and almost every document we reviewed for this story referred to him as Xu. So for simplicity, you'll hear us do the same for him and for a few others. Also, this series includes material originally written and spoken in Chinese. At various points, you'll hear actors voicing the translated versions in English. This episode also contains strong language. Finally, this is the second episode. If you missed the first, we recommend going back and listening from the beginning. Thanks.

[Drake Bennett]

When Jordan and I first started going through the documents of this case, we saw a bunch of the usual things we'd trial testimony, emails, that kind of stuff. But one thing really stood out. Remember, Xu Yanjun is a spy working for one of the most secretive agencies in the world, China's Ministry of State Security. So it was surprising to come across something much more intimate, something that made us feel like we were inside his head.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

June 11, morning eyeglasses prescription. March 6. The whole family worshiped the Buddha at Jinming Temple. October 29, evening the fan man and his wife held banquet. April 5, morning went with the second uncle's family to sweep great grandfather's tomb.

[Narrator/Analyst]

Xu Yanjun had an online calendar where he put his appointments in.

[Jordan Robertson]

This is Bradley Hull, the lead FBI agent on the Xu Yanjun case.

[Narrator/Analyst]

At the end of the day, he would take little notes to himself about what happened that day. Sometimes it was related to source meetings. Sometimes it was related to work conflicts. Sometimes it was about his wife or his child or the apartment that he wanted to buy.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

July 15, afternoon purchase the house, signed contract. May 25, morning family day at Xiao Xiao's kindergarten. Hike Zijin Mountain. June 25, afternoon Midao music festival.

[Jordan Robertson]

Shu goes to a music festival. Shu eats lobster. Shu takes his grandfather car shopping. Shu wins money at cards. Shu loses money at cards. Shu loses more money at cards.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

1950. Lost 700.

[Jordan Robertson]

Lost 20.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

100. Lost 150. We lost 600.

[Drake Bennett]

Shu seems to have been pretty bad at cards.

[Narrator/Analyst]

So it was every little piece of his life that he very diligently put down in textual form.

[Drake Bennett]

For us, it was a diary.

[Narrator/Analyst]

It was a diary.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

November 16, afternoon watch Interstellar with John Ling. October 31, evening karaoke. November 28. After dinner, foot massage. February 17, evening dined with Zhang Hao. Three rounds of drinks, puked.

[Narrator/Analyst]

There were highs and lows, and we saw all of them.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

March 3rd. Grandfather passed away at 10:40pm He's a.

[Narrator/Analyst]

Complicated fella, would be the simplest way to put it. He has some issues. He likes to gamble. He likes to womenize.

[Drake Bennett]

Hsu was married, but wasn't the most faithful husband.

[Narrator/Analyst]

I don't remember how many girlfriends we identified, but there were quite a few.

[Drake Bennett]

One of them starts to dominate his diary. Around this time he refers to her with an emoji, a peach.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

December 30 evening peach the beginning Wanda Hilton June 29 evening peach July 2 picked up peach near the shelter tin and gave the gift. August 7th went karaoke afterwards, Peach was drunk and took her home. September 20 Noom Peach Nanjing Hotel the.

[Drake Bennett]

Details of Xu's personal life are pretty juicy, but what's even more incredible is that this spy meticulously documents his work life too.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

March 14th 6th Bureau Meeting January 24th held banquet with Comrades of Aerospace team November 25th worked overtime until 2:30am May 13th Party Committee Meeting June 11th Matt G. Chao Tree March 31st Aviation Briefing August 24th my official promotion came Waited for too long. It finally came took a load off my mind.

[Drake Bennett]

It's normal enough to keep a diary, but Xu's recording things that are supposed to be secret, deniable things about his job and how he does it. It's an actual spy's diary and we got our hands on it.

[Jordan Robertson]

From bloomberg news and iheart podcast. This is the sixth bureau. I'm jordan robertson.

[Drake Bennett]

And I'm drake bennett.

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[Drake Bennett]

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[Jordan Robertson]

As spy agencies go, China's Ministry of State Security is unique. First of all, it's massive. Estimates we've heard put it at hundreds of thousands of employees. That's way bigger than the FBI and the CIA combined. And it has an additional job that those agencies don't industrial espionage. Stealing stuff from companies instead of governments.

[Matthew McKenzie]

It wasn't just military information. It wasn't just US Political information. They wanted trade secrets. They wanted everything.

[Jordan Robertson]

This is Matthew McKenzie, a federal prosecutor on the shoe case.

[Matthew McKenzie]

Everyone does espionage, but not every country uses their intelligence apparatus to steal commercial trade secrets. That is beyond the norms.

[Drake Bennett]

Technically, this is correct. The CIA and FBI don't steal trade secrets, but the US Government does have a history of it. In the late 1700s, right after independence, the US offered bounties for anyone who could smuggle out loom designs from British cotton mills. Those mills had been built thanks to plans stolen from Italian silk spinners, an industry that Italians essentially stole from China that centuries before. Fast forward to the 1990s. China's economy is still recovering from the devastation of the Cultural Revolution. And the ruling Communist Party decides, reasonably enough, that they need to do whatever they can to catch up. Within a decade, China becomes the world's factory, churning out toys and textiles and kitchen appliances. They soon move on to more advanced technologies like smartphones and electric vehicles. Then, in 2015, the CCP codifies this ambition in a strategic plan called made in China 2025. Which is exactly what it sounds like. China making its own critical technologies and no longer relying on Western products. That policy and commitment largely worked. Today, it's safe to say they've caught up in many of these technologies.

[Jordan Robertson]

But one key area where they haven't is aerospace. Building planes and helicopters and jet engines that other countries want to buy. That's where the MSS comes in. In particular, one of its divisions, the 6th Bureau, Xu Yanjun, worked there on a team tasked with stealing the secrets of the world's top aviation companies.

[Matthew McKenzie]

Everything in China is a top down approach, right? It is a edict from the government that we are going to make our own regional airliners so we can stop buying from Boeing and stop buying from ge. We are going to make our own domestic product.

[Jordan Robertson]

And Xu Yanjun's job is to work with engineers from China's state owned aerospace companies and get them exactly what they.

[Matthew McKenzie]

Need because they're the ones who are actually trying to build the plane.

[Drake Bennett]

Which brings us to a recording that Xu secretly made in 2017.

[Matthew McKenzie]

My favorite part of the entire case.

[Drake Bennett]

He's recording a talk by a man named Arthur Gao.

[Matthew McKenzie]

This is the engine power, therefore you have to do the power interrupt test and EMI lightning.

[Drake Bennett]

Arthur Gao was an engineer at the American company Honeywell. He worked on advanced technologies for both civilian and military aircraft.

[Matthew McKenzie]

For control systems of helicopters, there are two very important issues. One is the rotor dynamics. You have to take it into account.

[Drake Bennett]

Arthur is originally from Taiwan and he came to the US in the late 70s to get his PhD. He eventually wound up at Honeywell in Phoenix. He's been invited to China to give this talk in what was described as an academic exchange with the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. But when he got there, he wasn't brought to a university to give his talk. He was brought to a hotel room. Inside, only a few people were there.

[Matthew McKenzie]

Arthur thinks he's talking to all of these academics and students. And it turns out that they are no academics, there are no students.

[Drake Bennett]

There are MSS officers posing as people who work in the industry. There are also Chinese engineers, employees of China's state owned aerospace conglomerate avic, there to learn what they can from Arthur about his work at Honeywell.

[Narrator/Analyst]

In particular the combat aircraft systems that Honeywell builds for the United States military.

[Drake Bennett]

These are all military standards.

[Matthew McKenzie]

They have very detailed regulation.

[Drake Bennett]

Arthur talks to the group for about.

[Narrator/Analyst]

Three hours, and at the conclusion of his presentation, FBI agent Bradley Hall Xu Yanjian thanks him. They go through all the niceties and then they ask Arthur to step out of the room.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

Teacher Gao, maybe you can't head back first. Thank you so much.

[Drake Bennett]

Arthur walks out of the room, leaving Shu and the engineers alone. But the tape keeps rolling and there's this amazing kind of Easter egg. You know that narrative convention in movies and TV where near the beginning of a story, some new character shows up and someone else has to explain to them, and by extension you, the audience, how everything works and who everyone is. Think Peggy Olson's first day on the job in Mad Men. Now this is the executive floor. It should be organized, but it's not.

[Chase Ad Host]

So you'll find account executives and creative.

[Drake Bennett]

Executives all mixed in together. Please don't ask me the difference. Great. Hopefully, if you follow my lead, what we hear next on the recording is exactly that for Shoes World. You hear someone take a sip of a drink and put their mug down on the table. You hear the door close behind Arthur. And then Xu turns back to the group of Chinese engineers.

[Narrator/Analyst]

Xu Yanzhun starts describing how the MSS recruits Western experts, how they operate them, and how they found Arthur so that he could teach them about what the Americans were doing with their helicopters.

[Jordan Robertson]

Chu wants to know how the engineers think Arthur will be most useful to them, what kind of source he may be. So he lays out the different types of sources he brings in. Like a taxonomy of spies. Let's say he walks them through it.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

There are a few aspects to our collaboration.

[Narrator/Analyst]

He actually has what he calls four levels of expert participation. The first level are high ranking experts.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

This expert is ranked highly and is reliable. The expert can directly participate in the design of the project.

[Narrator/Analyst]

These are folks who have direct involvement in design both in the west and in Chinese systems. They have access to classified information in China and their long term sources. As in, these are the people that they keep on the books for 15, 20 years and they call them in when they need them.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

This is our highest level of Collaboration.

[Jordan Robertson]

A lot of the stories you hear about China stealing trade secrets involve hacking, breaking into computer systems, but spying's ultimately about something way more ordinary. Cultivating relationships or using people.

[James Olson]

They invite people over under some kind of innocent sounding pretext.

[Jordan Robertson]

This is James Olson.

[James Olson]

We'd like to invite you to China to give a guest lecture or to meet with our experts just for a get acquainted a session. And we will compensate you for that. There will be a stipend, and we will cover all your expenses. And most people fall for it.

[Jordan Robertson]

James knows this because he was a.

[James Olson]

Spy and the Central intelligence agency for.

[Jordan Robertson]

31 years, eventually the agency's chief of counterintelligence. So James has a pretty good idea of what a spy like Xu Yanjun does. And he says there's kind of a universal playbook on how to do it.

[James Olson]

It sounds cynical, but in the intelligence profession, we know that every human being has needs. And our job in intelligence is to identify what your need is. And our hope is that need is so compelling, so urgent, so important for you, that if we satisfy that need, you will assist us. You will violate your own country's laws. You will give us technology. It sounds terrible, but we are in the business of exploiting your weakness, your needs, your vulnerabilities. And we're good at it.

[Drake Bennett]

Sometimes exploiting vulnerabilities is a matter of carrots, but sometimes it sticks.

[James Olson]

People fear the mss. Generally, they will put that in the frame of. Your family back in China is dependent on the government, and we would not want to do anything to make their life more difficult.

[Matthew McKenzie]

I've seen cases where family members are arrested. I have seen cases where family members are sent by the MSS to deliver messages to people in the United States to either get in line or come back to China to face whatever consequences there are for them there.

[Drake Bennett]

We don't know exactly why Arthur Gao did what he did. We tried multiple times to contact him for this series, but we never heard back. We also reached out to his former employer, Honeywell. They never responded. But we do know that when the MSS came calling, it was hard for Arthur to say no. And they came calling more than once. That talk in the hotel room wasn't a one off. The MSS first targeted Arthur two decades before.

[Jordan Robertson]

The first invitation came to Arthur in 1997 from someone at the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, or nuaa. You're going to hear NUAA a lot in this series. Because its staff worked really closely with the mss.

[James Olson]

They allowed themselves to be used as cover to invite and to host foreign visitors so that they can assess them, wine them and dine them, develop them when they're making the trips to China. So it's a very, very valuable relationship in the MSSIs.

[Jordan Robertson]

So the invitations from NUAA kept coming and Arthur Gao kept accepting them. He'd come, give a talk. There'd be fancy meals, luxury cruises down the Yongs river, all expenses paid. Trips to visit tourist attractions. Then, after he got home from a trip in 2003, his contact followed up, asking for very sensitive information. Arthur seemed to get suspicious and he cut things off. That worked for a while. The mss, though, can be patient, like unbelievably patient. Eleven years later, his contact, who was actually an MSS officer named Ja Rong, reaches back out like an old friend checking in.

[Drake Bennett]

Time flies. It has been 11 years.

[Jordan Robertson]

He mentions things about Arthur's personal life that only a friend should know.

[Drake Bennett]

I heard that you had a son recently.

[Jordan Robertson]

Congratulations. He wishes Arthur's family a Happy New Year, stay healthy, and invites him to return to China. If I were Arthur, I'd be creeped out. So he replies. But he doesn't commit to another trip.

[Drake Bennett]

Two years later, in 2016, Jia nudges him again. This time, Arthur caves. He tells Jia that he does have a trip to China coming up. A personal trip to see some friends. Jia offers to pick him up at the Beijing airport. In the car, he introduces a supposed university colleague. It's actually Xu Yanjun. During that visit, Jia and Xu come up to Arthur's hotel room late at night and hand him $3,000. Arthur's confused. This has been a strictly personal trip. No presentation, no meetings. He didn't even bring his work computer. They basically tell him, keep it, use it for the next trip. On the next trip, though, in 2017, when he gives that talk in the hotel, he's handed another envelope of money. This time it's five grand. At the time he gave that talk, Arthur Gao was thinking about retirement. In a way, this only made him more useful. It meant he could come over for even longer periods of time and they could possibly even hire him.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

He said he may retire in two years or so. He also wants to, right? He has the ability, he is competent, he has a desire to achieve something. We can also design it that way.

[Jordan Robertson]

Arthur Gowdy, he was the longest running asset. That's in the case. I mean, he what, 20 years? What does he represent to you in terms of, you know, this organization's ability to run people for a long time?

[Narrator/Analyst]

Both the long term nature of the operation and then the significant amount of damage that can happen over that time frame. Bradley hall with Arthur's example, when he did choose to disclose, he disclosed things that could hurt us. 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.

[Drake Bennett]

In 2021, Arthur Gao was indicted and pled guilty to exporting controlled information without a license. He was sentenced to three years probation and in order to pay a fine.

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[Drake Bennett]

Okay, back to Xu's taxonomy of the types of sources he recruits. Level one is kind of like having someone who works for you directly over a period of time. Level two? That's more like having a consultant who's on call for specific one off jobs.

[Narrator/Analyst]

These are folks who examine specific models, they solve problems. They usually come to China for a one month period, but fairly infrequently because they are working in companies in the West.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

If we have specific questions, we can ask them. For instance, if we come across any problems in the project, we can present them with the questions directly in a very specific fashion.

[Drake Bennett]

Level three? That's even less of a commitment.

[Narrator/Analyst]

The third level he called topical experts. These are individuals who answer questions in person only, or they provide reports that they only come into China for very, very short durations of time because they're experts in their field back in the west, and it would be unusual or raise concerns if these people stayed there for more than a week or a weekend or something like that. Xu indicated that this was the most common type of source that he as an individual ran.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

This is something we've done quite a lot in the past.

[Drake Bennett]

Arthur Gao was probably a Level three. So was a man named Li Jiang. Xu wrote about meeting with Li in his diary.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

April 20 afternoon pick up Li from train station check in to Jingling Hotel.

[Drake Bennett]

We don't know that much about Li Jiang, but we do know that he was an expert on fighter aircraft and how to make them. Like the Lockheed Martin F35, which is one of the world's most advanced fighter jets. We also know that when Xu invited Li to come give a talk In Nanjing, the MSS officer used an alias. When Li arrives in April 2014, Xu and Jiarong host a banquet in his honor.

[Narrator/Analyst]

There's a level of rapport building. There's a level of wining and dining that's often involved with this.

[Jordan Robertson]

But it's not just about rapport building. During the banquet, Xu's colleagues sneak into Li's hotel room and try to hack into his computer. But they run into problems and they can't get everything they want. So they invite Li back a few months later for another visit. They want him to give a talk about electric takeoff and landing systems. And they want to take another crack at hacking into his laptop.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

December 7, Li Zhang's coming to Nanjing, entertaining.

[Jordan Robertson]

Xu brings Li to the hotel. Li drops his stuff in his room and then heads off to dinner with Xu's boss, Jiaorong, who's waiting for him in a private dining room.

[Drake Bennett]

I'm in the private room and the dishes have been ordered.

[Jordan Robertson]

Then Xu and another colleague go to Li's room to try and hack into his computer again. At 6:49pm, Xu texts his boss.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

Laptop is in sleep mode. One portable hard drive and two small drives.

[Jordan Robertson]

The hack is taking longer than expected and his boss gets impatient.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

It's too slow.

[Drake Bennett]

Speed it up.

[Jordan Robertson]

15 minutes later.

[Drake Bennett]

If it doesn't work, copy it with your own computer.

[Jordan Robertson]

Now it's 8:39pm the operation's been going for almost two hours. Xu updates his boss.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

The copying will more or less be done in 15 minutes. Restoring the scene and documents will take roughly 20 minutes.

[Jordan Robertson]

Hurry up. Hurry up. Because remember, Xu's boss, Jiaorong is having dinner with Li, and even a fake honorary banquet can only go on for so long.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

Finally, the carbine is completed. Restoring is in progress.

[Jordan Robertson]

After 2 hours and 22 minutes, Shu's done.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

Restored. Exiting.

[Narrator/Analyst]

You can let him toddle back up to his room at this point.

[Jordan Robertson]

The next day, Lee gives his talk. Totally clueless. He's been hacked. We were never able to reach Li Jiang. As far as we know, he was never charged with any crimes.

[Drake Bennett]

The fourth and final level of Shoe's experts are called spotters.

[Narrator/Analyst]

So these are people that we have living in the west whose job it is to identify engineers who might be susceptible for working with the mss.

[Drake Bennett]

These people are crucial for Shu because they live in places like the us, Places that are too risky for Xu to go. Ji Qiao Chun, the guy who was secretly recorded by the FBI in Chicago. Ji was a spotter. Ji was first approached by the MSS back in Beijing. It was 2012. He was about to graduate from college and he was checking out a job fair on campus. He'd also applied to some grad schools in the US to get a master's degree in engineering. He wasn't sure exactly what he wanted to do next. At the job fair, he meets Ja Rong, who's on a spotting mission of his own. The MSS officer introduces himself to Ji as a college professor and tells him about some vague opportunity in a, quote, confidential unit. This is Ji texting his girlfriend about that first conversation.

[Jordan Robertson]

He indicated that they wanted to train me to do things on their behalf because they are not able to leave the country.

[Drake Bennett]

Ji was a perfect candidate for the 6th Bureau. He was already planning to go to the US for legitimate reasons, an engineering program, and so didn't need a cover. And he was psyched to be a spy. Once the MSS came clean about who they really were, he was all in. He got into a university in Chicago, signed official paperwork with the mss, moved to the US and got to work.

[James Olson]

His job was to provide background information and hopefully some assessment information on Chinese Americans who were working in high tech companies in the United States.

[Drake Bennett]

Former CIA Chief of Counterintelligence James Olsen.

[James Olson]

He was fired up. He really wanted to do this. It's kind of fun being a spy.

[Drake Bennett]

And Xi had fun. A little too much fun. In 2014, he reaches out to a friend he knows from China. The friend is studying aeronautical Engineering in Washington D.C. gE wants his help finding potential sources. And he starts off by texting a photo of a bunch of hundred dollar bills. It's operating funds from Xu Yanjun, who's now his handler.

[Jordan Robertson]

Hunger. You even dare to photograph this? Photograph this sneakily delete after you see it.

[Drake Bennett]

Then Gee eventually gets down to business in his own way.

[Jordan Robertson]

Fuck you. Ask around for me.

[Drake Bennett]

Your school.

[Jordan Robertson]

Does anyone study engines or aircraft design? Yes, that's the major. I mean help me out and befriend.

[Narrator/Analyst]

People in the field.

[Jordan Robertson]

When does spring break start? I'll give you funds for it, asshole.

[James Olson]

You halfway have to like him, you know, he flashed the money around, he bragged about what he was doing. He loved being kind of a boy spy, you know?

[Jordan Robertson]

And that's exactly What? He was a boy spy? I mean, imagine being fresh out of college and doing this job. You might act a little reckless too. And when you look at Gee's texts from around this time, you're like, oh right, he is still a kid. Take these messages with his dad. Dad is good. Sea cucumber available now. Asking him for advice at the market.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

Only dried once in this season. Good ones are available all the time. But no fresh ones in this season.

[Jordan Robertson]

Do the dry ones last. Updating him on his travel through customs.

[Drake Bennett]

Got it.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

Put away your belongings, put on your.

[Public Ad Host]

Slippers and take a nice rest after.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

You board the plane.

[Wise Ad Host]

Baby, do your best.

[Jordan Robertson]

And on the money he gets from the MSS, I received 6,000.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

That is good. Stay safe. Be vigilant.

[Public Ad Host]

Try to understand others agenda when you.

[Jordan Robertson]

Interact with Be grateful in US dollars, not renminbi. These texts with his dad are all in 2014. A year later, Xi gets another text from Xu.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

Are you there? I have a favor to ask.

[Jordan Robertson]

I'm here.

[Wise Ad Host]

Please go ahead.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

Brother Xu, here are three websites. Look up these people separately.

[Jordan Robertson]

These people being engineers at Boeing, Lockheed Martin, NASA, and George, all of whom were born in either China or Taiwan and were working in the us she wants background checks on them. Home addresses, phone numbers, who they're married to. Sensitive stuff.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

A fee is required for the search and it needs to be paid using a foreign Visa card.

[Wise Ad Host]

Okay, I'll give it a try.

[Jordan Robertson]

A week later, GE sends Xu the background checks he bought on the Internet. He puts a password on the file, zips it, and gives it a cheeky codename. Midterm exam paper.

[Drake Bennett]

Honestly, these background checks, they're a small job for a rookie. For now, Gee's pretty low down in Chu's taxonomy, but it seems like he's trying to rise through the ranks and make himself more valuable to the mss. After he completes grad school, Gee enlists in the US army as a fast track to get American citizenship and a security clearance. So he may be young and reckless, but he's also pretty strategic. He has potential. See, the MSS is in the business of making bets. Some are big bets, like grooming engineers working abroad over the course of decades. Some are quite small, like giving a 20 something a bunch of cash and sending him out into the world to see where he ends up. But together, if enough of these bets pay off, they add up to something much bigger. A more powerful China. Which is ultimately Shu Yanjun's mission. Near the end of the recording, after he's gone through his taxonomy with The Chinese engineers. He brings it back to what this is all really about.

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

At the end of the day, we are all serving the state. We're all serving the state, right? Everyone. We all share the same goal.

[Matthew McKenzie]

That recording was almost dumb luck. I cannot believe they didn't turn that recording off before they dropped their pretenses. It really shines a spotlight on Chinese tradecraft.

[Jordan Robertson]

Xu and the engineers, his boss, Ja Rong, even the sources he's handling. Ji Qiao, Chun, Arthur, Gao, Li Jiang. They're cogs in this giant machine. The talks at nuaa, the hacking, the carrots, the sticks, the cash. This is what that machine looks like from the inside. So yeah, Xu is this cog, but this is also his life. And in the days after he records this meeting, he decides to take on a high risk, high reward operation. One that will completely upend his life and disrupt the machine for years to come.

[Drake Bennett]

On the next episode.

[Public Ad Host]

What about spies?

[Drake Bennett]

Spies come here.

[Jordan Robertson]

There's no question. There's no question, you know?

[Xu Yanjun (Diary/Texts)]

March 27, John rejected a meal received today. An ungrateful person like him has no shame. I will have my revenge.

[Narrator/Analyst]

He would have an amazing case and get a beautiful end of the year review and then be crushed a week later because a decimal point was wrong on a receipt. So that that yo yoing between your great and you're terrible clearly was having an impact on his state of mind.

[James Olson]

When Xiu saw Xing's LinkedIn profile, he said, bingo. Jackpot. Exactly what they want and I'm going to go get it.

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