May 24, 2025: In January Filipino security forces arrested about a dozen Chinese and Filipino citizens and charged them all with spying for China. Some of the accused had been caught while using drones, cameras and other electronic instruments to survey Filipino infrastructure and military installations. The alleged Chinese spies were particularly eager to study bases and areas that American forces would use when they regularly visited to train with their Filipino counterparts.

Chinese investments in the Philippines bring with it a lot of legal, and illegal, Chinese workers. The Philippines has been catching a growing number of these Chinese operating as spies. The most blatant example is the Chinese gangsters who set up illegal gambling operations near army bases and then use the gambling debts many soldiers accumulate to coerce the soldiers to spy for China. When presented with the evidence China denied any involvement and said it would investigate Filipino workers in China to discover how many of them were spying for the Philippines. There is no history of the Philippines using expatriate workers as spies while the Chinese use of this practice is the most active in the history of espionage. China denies that but the growing number of Chinese in the West getting caught and convicted of such espionage says otherwise.

All this is nothing new. For at least two decades Chinese espionage efforts have been detected or suspected. Chinese civilians have a growing number of business interests in the Philippines, some of them illegal. Since 2012 Filipino police have arrested over 500 members of Chinese gangs that committed their various types of fraud and theft via the Internet. Most of those arrested were from China and Taiwan and had set up shop in the Philippines to avoid Chinese police. Some of the ringleaders were Filipinos of Chinese ancestry.

While China is the largest practitioner of Internet espionage, it is also one the main victims of Internet based crime. China is tolerant of hackers who work for the government and only steal from foreigners. Chinese hackers who prey on Chinese Internet users are hunted down and jailed, or worse. So these Chinese Internet gangsters have sought foreign bases.

The Philippines has long been a favorite place for international criminals to operate from. This was especially true of Internet based crime. But that has changed as major governments become more adept at tracking down where the actual criminals are located and making arrangements with police in those countries to take down these gangs. For a while Filipino police were reluctant to get involved because these crooks were smart enough to be good citizens where they were operating from. A growing number of these Chinese married Philippines women and established legitimate businesses. Most of these Chinese enterprises were legitimate but a growing number were found to be criminal. These included internet-based scams that preyed on victims worldwide. The Philippines was a good place to do business because most Filipinos speak English. Unemployment rates are high in the Philippines and the Chinese internet entrepreneurs paid well for what appeared to be legitimate work. Much of it was, but the most profitable activities were carried out simultaneously in a different part of these businesses.

The Filipino government does not want to shut down legitimate businesses while looking for criminal operations. The Chinese gangs conceal their illegal operations among the legitimate ones. The Philippines has long had a major corruption problem and the Chinese took advantage of that to pay off the right people in areas where they operated. Since none of the victims were Filipino, the Chinese operations were seen has beneficial to the Philippines and Filipinos. It required federal Filipino intervention. These actions have been more frequent as allies of the Philippines complain that Chinese espionage operations are regularly traced back to the Philippines.

There have been several crackdowns, but the Chinese gangs were prepared for this and sacrificed some portions of their operations while the majority went silent and unseen. After a while, when it seemed safe, the Chinese operations resumed in other parts of the country. Because of the wide availability of the internet and the 7,.600 islands that comprise the Philippines, the Chinese operations can reappear and be operational elsewhere quickly.

Because of its location, the Philippines has become a major center for Chinese espionage and internet-based crime operations. The Chinese government assists the gangs as long as the gangsters provide support for Chinese espionage efforts. This is a problem that has defied numerous efforts to eliminate it. Now you know why.