US lawmakers raise intelligence fears over Covid ‘detention’ of American diplomats in China

Two US Republicans seek documents linked to the confinement of 16 diplomats under the guise of Covid-19 restrictions
China is suspected of using tactics to pressure officials to surrender intelligence

US-China relations

Bloomberg

Published: 6:16pm, 30 Sep 2022

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Two US Republican lawmakers have asked the State Department to save documents linked to what they said was the detention of more than a dozen US diplomats in Chinese Covid-19 quarantine over concern that China may have pressured them to surrender intelligence.

China’s confinement of diplomats “raises grave national security concerns”, Representatives James Comer and Michael McCaul said in a letter on Thursday to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken obtained by Bloomberg.

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“We must ensure the protection of all Americans abroad – especially those who have access to classified information – and put an end to the undignified detainment of US diplomats,” they said.

Citing correspondence provided by whistle-blowers as well as reporting in The Washington Post, the two lawmakers said China “engaged in a sustained campaign to deprive US diplomats of their liberties under the guise of Covid-19 containment”.

They said the US embassy had confirmed that 16 diplomats and their family members were involuntarily held.

“Committee Republicans are concerned that US diplomats could be, or have been, pressured to surrender intelligence while detained,” they said.

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At the height of the pandemic in June 2020, US diplomats moving to China raised concerns that the Chinese government would control their Covid-19 testing – possibly gaining access to DNA samples – and that family members might be separated.

Diplomats traded stories on social media that colleagues had been detained in a Chinese quarantine hotel for more than two weeks.

The State Department later worked out agreements with China intended to minimise separations and make sure testing was anonymous.

McCaul is the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Comer has the same role on the chamber’s oversight committee. The two will become chairmen of those committees if Republicans win control of the US House of Representatives in November. Their letter suggests they may make investigating the suspected detentions a priority.

Congress needs “more transparency from the State Department about Covid-19 restrictions placed on our diplomats in China”, McCaul said in a separate statement.