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CIA faces crippling challenges in China

17th May 2018 - 02:30 GMT | by Wendell Minnick in Taipei

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China’s perfection of facial recognition and gait detection software, integrated into algorithms that have access to millions of profiles of ‘blacklisted’ individuals, would give Cold War fictional spy hero, George Smiley, a heart attack today.

Former US intelligence officers are warning that human intelligence (HUMINT) operations within China will collapse or become non-existent as these systems go online.

Traditional espionage tradecraft and time-tested skulduggery will be impossible in a world where Orwellian systems paint targets on the backs of not just spies, but political activists, foreign businessmen and visiting scholars.

The CIA has already sustained serious damage in China, topped

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Wendell Minnick

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Wendell Minnick


Wendell Minnick (顏文德) was Shephard's Senior Asia Correspondent throughout 2017 and 2018. Wendell is an …

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