Republicans Probe Whether China Quarantined US Diplomats to Steal Intelligence, Demand Investigation

Two Republican Congressmen requested that the State Department preserve documents linked to the forced quarantine of more than a dozen U.S. diplomats in China, citing concerns that the communist regime may have pressured them into surrendering intelligence.

The Sep. 29 letter (pdf), which was addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and signed by Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.) and Michael McCaul (R-Texas), said that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials may have used COVID-19 quarantines to pressure diplomats into giving up vital intelligence.

“U.S. Embassy officials in Beijing recently confirmed that 16 U.S. diplomats and their family members—throughout the pandemic—have been involuntarily held in quarantine camps and subjected to strict confinement measures with no definitive release date,” the letter said.

“Committee Republicans are concerned that U.S diplomats could be or have been pressured to surrender intelligence while detained in [Chinese] quarantine camps.”

Comer is the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which published the letter. McCaul leads the GOP’s China Task Force and is the ranking member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

“We must protect our personnel from Chinese counterintelligence efforts,” said a statement by the Oversight Committee on Twitter.

Comer and McCaul suggested that the involuntary quarantine of American diplomats in China was a national security threat, and suggested that the CCP’s quarantine of key U.S. officials could be part of a larger espionage effort.

“The confinement of U.S. diplomats in [China] raises grave national security concerns,” the letter said.

“[China] poses a geopolitical threat to the United States and should not be coercing U.S. diplomats into and surveilling them under draconian quarantine policies.”

The letter also cited evidence from internal whistleblower correspondence made available to Congress and original reporting from The Washington Post to outline how CCP officials forcibly tested U.S. diplomats for other diseases in addition to COVID-19 and attempted to separate American diplomats from their children for extended periods by placing them in a “fever clinic.”

It also underscored the history of CCP operations against U.S. citizens and partners, saying that the United States and CCP were in a “cool war,” and noting that the regime previously executed 30 U.S. intelligence sources during the Obama administration.

“Given that troubling reality,” the letter said, “it is reasonable to wonder and worry about the threats posed by [China] to U.S. diplomats while they are or were being involuntarily and unjustly quarantined, ostensibly under the guise of COVID-19 protocols.”

“Unfortunately, these extreme containment measures are part of [China’s] attempt to undermine United States national security and undermine basic reciprocity in diplomatic relations.”