China’s spy ministry vows foreign espionage crackdown after strategic metal smuggling case

Ministry of State Security report comes after attempt to smuggle gallium, an essential component in advanced military radar

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Gallium and Germanium are two strategic rare metals that have been placed on China’s export control list. Photo: Reuters

Published: 4:32pm, 4 Nov 2024Updated: 5:14pm, 4 Nov 2024

China’s top spy agency said a tip-off led investigators to crack a case of attempted smuggling of gallium – an essential component in military radar units that is subject to export controls – adding that it would continue to work to shut down theft of the country’s strategic minerals by “foreign espionage agencies”.

The Ministry of State Security on Monday published a report on its official WeChat channel saying that it had received information that a foreign national surnamed Du had planned to transport the material out of China earlier this year.

According to the report, Du was stopped by the national security police who found a bottle of gallium in his carry-on luggage. The MSS said it then determined that Du had been carrying the bottle on behalf of an employee of a Chinese metal company, surnamed Tang, and Du had no idea that the material was a controlled substance.

Tang, a Chinese citizen, later confessed that another foreign national, surnamed Fan, had told him he could earn a large sum of money if he bought gallium in China and smuggled it out of the country.

An image of gallium crystals. Photo: Wikipedia

Tang, aware that gallium was a restricted material in China, asked Du to transport the substance out of China and hand it over to Fan, according to the spy agency.

While Du was released with a warning, Tang and his company were “held accountable by law”, the ministry said, without providing further details.