Call it “citizen spying”. Hundreds – perhaps thousands – of Chinese government sources act as a giant human vacuum cleaner, sucking up intelligence to be digested in Beijing. Even the smallest scrap of information might be useful.
Chinese security services are engaging the most intense collection of intelligence by a foreign power Australia has ever seen. And Australia does not have the resources to stop it.
Spying in Australia today is probably as intense as during the Cold War, security officials say. But it’s a new form of intelligence gathering.