◆ SpookStack

1 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/07 : CIA-RDP87MO00539R000901 190016-2 SECRET diplomatic charter of the establishment. Another example of this is the San Francisco Consulate's leasing of a residence in Los Angeles. Ostensibly to house PRC students in the area, this location is staffed by officials from the San Francisco Consulate and is reputed among the Chinese-American community of Los Angeles to be the PRC's "consulate" for Southern California. Paralleling this development has been a recent tendency for some of the working sections of PRC diplomatic establishments to seek to establish office quarters outside of their current diplomatic facilities. An example of this was seen when the Cultural Affairs Section of the PRC Embassy tried to purchase its own building in Washington, D.C. When the United States Department of State (USDS) learned of this, the purchase was blocked, since the U.S. Embassy in Beijing does not have the same freedom to expand its operations outside its current quarters. The PR C's response to this USDS move was to attempt to have a trusted Chinese-American contact purchase the desired building and then lease it back to the PRC Embassy. The Educational Affairs Section of the PRC Embassy is now also looking for its own outside space, as is the Educational Affairs Section of the San Francisco Consulate. Although, as noted above, only five to ten percent of the PRC diplomats and officials in the United States have been identified as affiliated with the PRCIS, it should not be assumed that the level of Chinese intelligence activity in the United States corresponds to the level of PRCIS staffing of Chinese establishments. The intelligence activities of these IOs are complemented in the United States by the intelligence activities of Chinese visitors, students, and delegations. Although a number of FBI investigations have documented the fact that PRCIS officers under diplomatic or official cover do handle certain intelligence operations, other investigations have indicated that those same officers play, at most, a supporting role in other PRC intelligence operations in the United States. SECRET -6- __ Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/07 : CIA-RDP87M00539R000901190016-2