The newspaper report said the Pentagon obtained a Chinese government manual earlier this year detailing the ease with which Beijing has aggressively gathered defense intelligence for more than 30 years.
The 250-page book, "Sources and Techniques of Obtaining National Defense Science and Technology Intelligence," is not classified, but Pentagon officials said its contents provide new insights on how the Chinese government obtains secrets.
"The Chinese do not spy as God intended it," said Paul Moore, a former FBI intelligence analyst who specialized in Beijing spying activities.
Moore said China uses a variety of collectors – students, business people, scientists and visitors abroad – instead of relying on professional intelligence officers working for the Ministry of State Security.
According to the spy manual, more than 80 percent of all Chinese spying focuses on open-source material obtained from government and private sector information. The remaining 20 percent is gathered through illicit means, such as electronic eavesdropping and reconnaissance satellites.
The manual states that negligence on the part of security review personnel also plays a part in obtaining valuable secrets. For example, a top secret scientific report known as "UCRL-4725 Weapons Development, June 1956" was mistakenly declassified by Los Alamos National Laboratory. It became the basis for Progressive magazine's 1979 article on the development of the hydrogen bomb.
The spy manual was written by Huo Zhongwen and Wang Zonxiao, 30-year spy veterans who teach intelligence at the China National Defense, Science and Technology Information Center in Beijing.
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