The buzz among the security-savy is that China's state News Agency, Xinhua is routinely used to gather intelligence and that China itself is ravenous for global intelligence on the political, military and industrial front. That is why so many questions linger in the exchange of emails and apparent friendship between MP Bob Dechert, a parliamentary secretary in the foreign affairs dept and a woman posted here in Canada by Xinhua. Today we ask about the vulnerability of our officials and the history of female spies: Infiltration through Flirtation.

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Part One of The Current

Satire

It's Wednesday, September 14th.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is standing by the junior minister who exchanged intimate emails with a journalist employed by China's state news agency.

Currently, the Chinese say the emails are a private affair that should only concern the party involved -- the Communist party.

This is the Current.

China Spies - Charles Burton

Politicians and reporters regularly communicate through e-mails. It's often the easiest way to get in touch. But maybe not like the e-mail Bob Dechert admittedly sent last year to Shi Rong, a Toronto employee for China's Xinhua News Agency. The communication was published in a number of newspapers and caused immediate controversy. Conservative MP Bob Dechert, is the parliamentary secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird.

Mr.Dechert brushed off the fuss and says it's an innocent friendship. But Xinhua is not a typical news service. It's the official press agency of the Government of the People's Republic of China.

Charles Burton is an expert on China. He's consulted the CSIS and the RCMP on their China file and has spent four years at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing as a counsellor for political affairs. Charles Burton is also a professor at Brock University and he was in St. Catharine's this morning.

Requests to interview Ontario Conservative MP Bob Dechert went unanswered. And the Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird declined our request for an interview. His assistant suggested we refer to Mr. Baird's earlier comments in the Globe and Mail... where he referred to the Dechert affair, as quote: Ridiculous, ridiculous. Mr. Baird went on to criticize media coverage of the story, saying his parliamentary secretary is a mild-mannered man.

China Spies - David Wise

Despite the Xinhua news agency's reputation it is by no means certain that its Toronto correspondent is involved in intelligence gathering. But if we take a step back some warn lost of governments have been infiltrated and their secrets penetrated.

Our next guest says China has a long history of extracting sensitive information with well-placed female spies. David Wise is the author of a number of books about espionage. His latest is called Tiger Trap, America's secret spy war with China. We reached David Wise in Washington, D.C.

History shows that so-called honey traps have been around for decades... for as long as there have been countries vying for power and intelligence, spies, sex and secrets have been intimately linked, and almost always with devastating results. We shared a few infamous cases of honey traps.

Related Links:

• Baird stands by MP who flirted by e-mail with Chinese reporter By Colin Freeze, Jane Taber and Steven Chase - Globe and Mail
• Memo to Bob Dechert By J. Michael Cole - Ottawa Citizen
• China's Xinhua a trap for unwary Western politicians By Steven Chase & Colin Freeze - Globe and Mail
• Our Spy War with China By Tara McKelvey - NY Times
  

  
  

Other segments from today's show:

• Constituent Services
• Entitled University Students