Yu Qiangsheng: Difference between revisions
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==Early life== |
==Early life== |
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Yu was born to mother [[Jiang Qing|Li Yunhe]] ({{Zh|s=李云鹤|labels=no}}) and father [[Huang Jing]] ({{Zh|s=黄敬|labels=no}}). Yu's mother, later popularly known as Madame Mao, was born Li Shumeng ({{Zh|s=李淑蒙|labels=no}}) in 1914 to a carpenter in [[Shandong]] |
Yu was born to mother [[Jiang Qing|Li Yunhe]] ({{Zh|s=李云鹤|labels=no}}) and father [[Huang Jing]] ({{Zh|s=黄敬|labels=no}}). Yu's mother, later popularly known as Madame Mao, was born Li Shumeng ({{Zh|s=李淑蒙|labels=no}}) in 1914 to a carpenter in [[Shandong|Shandong Province]]; his father, born [[Huang Jing|Yu Qiwei]] ({{Zh|s=俞启威|labels=no}}), was born in 1912 to a prominent family in [[Shaoxing]], [[Zhejiang|Zhejiang Province]]. Yu Qiwei and Li Yunhe met at [[Shandong University|National Qingdao University]] (now Shandong University) while Yu was a physics student three years her senior, fell in love, and were married. Yu introduced Li to the [[Chinese Communist Party|communist movement]]. |
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Following the couple's divorce and the [[Marco Polo Bridge incident]], Li fled to the [[Yun'an District|Yun'an]] district of [[Guangdong]] |
Following the couple's divorce and the [[Marco Polo Bridge incident]], Li fled to the [[Yun'an District|Yun'an]] district of [[Guangdong|Guangdong Province]] to marry Chinese communist leader [[Mao Zedong]], becoming [[Jiang Qing]], the inaugural first lady of the [[China|People's Republic of China]] and leader of the radical political alliance known as the [[Gang of Four]]. Yu had four siblings including his younger brother [[Yu Zhengsheng]], now a retired senior Chinese politician whose career included assignments as the [[Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary|Communist Party Secretary]] of [[Hubei|Hubei Province]] and [[Shanghai]], and 8th [[Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference|Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultive Conference]]. |
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== Chinese intelligence career == |
== Chinese intelligence career == |
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Revision as of 04:07, 13 November 2023
Yu Qiangsheng | |
|---|---|
俞强声 | |
 Yu circa 1960 | |
| Born | Yu Qiangsheng 1940 |
| Disappeared | 1986 United States |
| Status | Whereabouts unknown |
| Citizenship | People's Republic of China United States (from 1985) |
| Alma mater | University of International Relations |
| Employers | |
| Parents |
|
| Family |
|
| Espionage activity | |
| Allegiance | United States (from 1985) |
| Agency | Central Intelligence Agency |
| Cryptonym | PLANESMAN |
Yu Qiangsheng (Chinese: 俞强声; born 1940, disappeared 1986) is a former high-ranking intelligence official of the People's Republic of China who defected to the United States in 1985. The information he provided exposed CIA officer Larry Wu-Tai Chin as having been a mole for Chinese intelligence for more than 40 years. At the time of his defection, Yu was head of the North America Bureau of the Ministry of State Security (MSS).
Yu is the Princeling son of two communist revolutionaries, Huang Jing and Li Yunhe (later married to Mao Zedong) and is the elder brother of Yu Zhengsheng, a prominent retired Chinese politician.
Early life
Yu was born to mother Li Yunhe (李云鹤) and father Huang Jing (黄敬). Yu's mother, later popularly known as Madame Mao, was born Li Shumeng (李淑蒙) in 1914 to a carpenter in Shandong Province; his father, born Yu Qiwei (俞启威), was born in 1912 to a prominent family in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. Yu Qiwei and Li Yunhe met at National Qingdao University (now Shandong University) while Yu was a physics student three years her senior, fell in love, and were married. Yu introduced Li to the communist movement.
Following the couple's divorce and the Marco Polo Bridge incident, Li fled to the Yun'an district of Guangdong Province to marry Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong, becoming Jiang Qing, the inaugural first lady of the People's Republic of China and leader of the radical political alliance known as the Gang of Four. Yu had four siblings including his younger brother Yu Zhengsheng, now a retired senior Chinese politician whose career included assignments as the Communist Party Secretary of Hubei Province and Shanghai, and 8th Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultive Conference.
Chinese intelligence career
Yu graduated from University of International Relations in Beijing and began his career as a detective in the Beijing Public Security Bureau.[1][2] Yu was later moved to China's primary intelligence apparatus, the newly-established Ministry of State Security (MSS).[3]
Defection
According to a testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission hearing on Chinese intelligence services and espionage operations, David Major, founder and president of the Counterintelligence Centre, Yu was the first to provide the United States intelligence community with an understanding of PRC intelligence operations. In the testimony, Major states that Yu initiated contact with the U.S. Embassy in Beijing in 1981 under the cover of a recruitment operation against a CIA officer assigned to the embassy. Yu continued to provide the United States intelligence about PRC intelligence operations under the cryptonym PLANESMAN.[4]
While serving as director of the Ministry of State Security's North America Department in 1985, Yu fled China for the United States via Kai Tak Airport in British Hong Kong.[3]
Impact
Yu provided a number of state secrets to the Central Intelligence Agency, most famously revealing China's top spy in Washington, former analyst at the CIA, Larry Wu-Tai Chin,[5] and French diplomat Bernard Bouriscot, who had been recruited by Chinese intelligence using a honeypot.[6]
In China, Yu's defection prompted a reorganization of the MSS and the sacking of the inaugural director of the MSS, Ling Yun.[3]
Later life
Details of Yu's life following his debriefing remain unclear.[7]
In the 1990s, the Chinese Communist Party spread rumors that of a successful assassination of Yu. Chinese state media claimed that Yu had been pursued by five special agents and drowned in the sea off the coast of South America. Other, likely fictitious, accounts allege Yu was fed radioactive salt while in South America.[8]
In December 2015, a former head of the FBI Chinese counterintelligence group provided Voice of America with additional details regarding Yu's disappearance and dispelled rumors of his killing, adding that he had spent a number of evenings moving pub-to-pub with Yu in Georgetown, Washington D.C.
In popular culture
David Ignatius, foreign affairs contributor to the The Washington Post and spy novelist, published a four-part serialized fiction novella titled The Tao of Deception which provides a fictionalized account of Yu Qiangsheng's defection to the United States and extraction from Hong Kong.[9]
References
- ^ 聞東平，正在進行的諜戰，明鏡出版社，2009年，第306页
- ^ 動向119-124，百家出版社，1995年，第36页
- ^ a b c "China's Ministry of State Security". Stratfor. 1 June 2012.
- ^ Major, David (9 June 2016). "Testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Hearing on Chinese Intelligence Services and Espionage Operations" (PDF). U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
- ^ Lim, Benjamin (19 June 2007). "China princeling emerges from defection scandal". Reuters. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
- ^ Smith, I. C.; West, Nigel (2012). Historical Dictionary of Chinese Intelligence. Scarecrow Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-8108-7370-4.
- ^ Denlinger, Paul (4 June 2021). "The Disappearance of Yu Qiangsheng". Chiense Crime.
- ^ Brown, Kerry (2014). The New Emperors: Power and the Princelings in China. I.B.Tauris. pp. 159–161. ISBN 978-0-85773-383-2.
- ^ Ignatius, David (5 July 2023). "The Tao of Deception". The Washington Post.