In peacetime, commercial espionage is more common and even more important than military espionage.
Spies are not handsome James Bonds. They are often ordinary-looking, commercial agents of a large company in the sales field, or publicly operated consulting agencies.
There are many ways to collect intelligence, but more than 90% of the information is actually obtained from the public domain.
Because in reality, information often cannot be hidden.
For example, in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the domestic oil gap reached 60%. Buses did not burn oil but gas, and they had to carry a huge gas bag on the roof.
In the 1960s, gas bags suddenly disappeared.
The Japanese reacted the fastest to this. They collected intelligence everywhere. For example, they paid attention to the cover of China Pictorial in 1966 - Iron Man Wang Jinxi.
From the winter coat and dog-skin hat Wang Jinxi wore, we can conclude that the oil field is in the Northeast. From the text description in the report, we can determine the approximate location of the oil field.
From the handle held by Wang Jinxi in the photo, we can infer the diameter of the oil well. Then we can infer the size of the oil field based on the spacing of the drilling wells in the background.
From the comparison between the oil refining reaction tower and the fence, we can infer the diameter of the reaction tower, and then know the oil refining capacity and oil field output. We further know that the domestic oil refining capacity is insufficient.
When the domestic Ministry of Petroleum Industry began bidding for petroleum refining equipment from abroad, the Japanese were the most prepared.
Other suppliers were still confused when it came to the bidding. Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries analyzed a large amount of information through public data and came up with the most suitable equipment plan, thus winning the bid in one fell swoop.
These are all commercial information obtained through public collection. No secret means are needed, as long as you are careful enough, you can know it.
In fact, most leaks are often reported by public media.
Zhou Qingfeng provided foreign embargoed machine tools and electronic components to factories and scientific research institutes in the Imperial Capital, and foreign trade agents doing business in the Imperial Capital reacted most sensitively.
After all, there are cheaper good goods, and no one wants to waste money anymore. Foreign or Japanese soldiers usually sell crappy things, and every transaction is like a reward, which is disgusting.
Anderson Qin, who works for ADI, will recently sell a batch of eight-bit analog-to-digital conversion chips to an electronics import and export company prefixed with "中".
But the business negotiations lasted for several months, and the bureaucrats on the "China" side suddenly hardened their backs. Anderson Qin did not wait for the import and export company's negotiators, and only had a phone call with the other party the next day.
Domestic bureaucrats directly asked: "Can your ADI sell 16-bit high-speed broadband analog-to-digital conversion chips?"
Don't be kidding, 12-bit analog-to-digital conversion chips are on the embargo list, and 10-bit ones are the export limit. Buying eight-bit chips all depends on Qin Hao's mood. If he is in a bad mood, he will raise the price.
Domestic bureaucrats actually want sixteen people, where do you have the heart?
Sixteen-bit analog-to-digital conversion chips are either used in fighter jets, satellites, or cutting-edge radars and radio stations. They are never exported to foreign countries. If you want them domestically, you must obtain them in small quantities through underground channels.
Anderson Qin flatly refused. As a result, the other party just made a few hums and hung up the phone.
Isn’t that right?!
Usually domestic bureaucrats beg to buy it, but today the situation has reversed.
Qin Hao tried to wait for his negotiating opponent to change his mind. But the other party unexpectedly kicked him out and had no intention of contacting him again.
By this point, any fool knows something is wrong.
It was about making money, Qin Hao immediately reported the relevant situation to the US headquarters. But the headquarters didn't care much about it...
Due to the embargo and low application level in China, low-end products have always been purchased in small quantities. To put it bluntly, the market is limited and cannot attract attention.
But the headquarters did not pay attention to it. As a banana man, Qin Hao had to pay attention to it.
This is related to his job, to his several months of paid leave a year, and to whether he can go to Sanlitun every night to enjoy an emperor-like life.
The ADI headquarters only asked Qin Hao to investigate on his own, and did not provide much help other than that. All Qin Hao could do was collect information from everywhere, trying to figure out what went wrong with electronic devices in the country.
Technological breakthrough?
impossible.
Science and technology are not castles in the air. Even the simplest capacitors and resistors cannot be produced well in China, and chips are in the low-end imitation stage.
To put it bluntly, some state-owned units are too secure in their iron rice bowl.
The employees have no sense of responsibility. They do different things whether they do well or not, and they can't even build a bicycle.
Trying to climb to the cutting-edge products in one go is against scientific laws.
The biggest possibility is that China has found other better sources of goods, and no longer needs ADI, let alone Anderson Qin.
Damn it, is this another ‘Toshiba incident’?
After acquiring the nine-axis five-linkage CNC machine tool, the underwater noise of Soviet ships, especially nuclear submarines, dropped significantly, making it difficult to continue NATO monitoring.
Such sudden changes must mean that something out of control is happening behind the scenes, triggering a series of investigations.
There must be some secret behind the sudden lack of ADI products in China.
It must be some brave guy who is causing trouble. In order to make huge profits, he secretly shipped embargoed components to China.
Qin Hao figured this out and immediately found that he was forced into a desperate situation.
"No, no! We must not let this happen. We must find this hidden company or individual, and we must expose this matter."
The easiest way is to find a foreign media to publish an article and tell Yingjiang's intelligence agency that someone is selling embargoed devices behind the scenes.
This kind of thing is most likely done by the Japanese. They have the skills and criminal records.
Check them, check them, check them hard.
Qin Hao's main competitors in the mainland are Japanese manufacturers. Moreover, the Japanese prefer to work hard, are very courageous, and will do anything to make money.
Japanese manufacturers like Toshiba, Sony, Panasonic, and Murata are doing very well in the Chinese market. Compared with the arrogant European and American manufacturers, they are not so arrogant.
Qin Hao grabbed the phone at hand and wanted to call foreign reporters in the imperial capital. For example, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, there were a lot of idle reporters waiting to make big news.
But before the call was made, someone called in.
Look at the number, don’t recognize it
Qin Hao still connected, and a stiff and indifferent voice came from the phone, "Qin Sang, I am Watanabe from the Japan External Trade Organization in the imperial capital."
Oh..., Qin Hao protracted, and the image of a smiling Japanese old man came to mind. He asked in confusion: "Mr. Watanabe, are you okay?"
"We have received some very bad news recently, and now we want to communicate with you."
"What..., what do you mean?"
"Qin Sang, please stop making excuses. We already have conclusive evidence that as the commercial representative of ADI in the United States, you are engaging in things that harm the Western trading system.
I want to give you a warning now. Please stop before more serious consequences are caused. Don't play with fire anymore. Otherwise, I will report you to your government."
The Japanese, who always speak in a roundabout way, rarely speak in such a blunt manner. This is obviously a sign of extreme anger and irritation, and they are ready to fight to the death.