Even if they could (which I doubt they could as a matter of fact) check it there's no way they can know what his brother had with him or their associates have. Ling Jihua was one of the leaders of Hu Jintao's Youth League faction which ruled in PRC. One can't just assess what documents he had seen or obtained through semi-official or unofficial channels like dinners with other top officials or other occasions. Not to mention that as the Director of General Office he had probably access to almost everything.
Brother of Ling Jihua Reveals China's nuclear launch code and top secrets to US
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TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
We Don't know what information was handed over. US intel will never risk allowing the PRC to know just what they got from the dealings. One of the most secret of Secrets kept by Intelligence agencies is the Secrets they gathered on others. We may learn over time some tidbits but, overall I suspect that the biggest revelation of Ling Wancheng and his Brother Ling Jihua not a so much a victory of US intelligence as a sign of instability in the CCP and the leadership culture.
This case is not a True coup for the FBI or CIA It's a Failure of the PRC security and shows cultural failings of the Communist party.
Remember at one point not to long ago Ling Jihua was a trusted member of the CCP hierarchy, A man in the inner circle of power.
Now that man has feed information to his brother and told him to distribute it to Western Intelligence if something happened to him. The Implication being that Ling Jihua suspected that the Xi administration would play hardball with former members of the leadership, and his prediction has come to pass. This disparity between the current fifth generation leadership and the former fourth generation can be seen as a sign of weakness and the fact that Ling Jihua managed seemingly transmit sensitive data to his brother out of China's boarders could encourage others to try the same. leading to more destabilization of the party and culture of leadership.
What the US gets from Ling Wancheng in this case may be impressive but it's more or less the booby prize. The Real impact is routed in the effect on the PRC.
This case is not a True coup for the FBI or CIA It's a Failure of the PRC security and shows cultural failings of the Communist party.
Remember at one point not to long ago Ling Jihua was a trusted member of the CCP hierarchy, A man in the inner circle of power.
Now that man has feed information to his brother and told him to distribute it to Western Intelligence if something happened to him. The Implication being that Ling Jihua suspected that the Xi administration would play hardball with former members of the leadership, and his prediction has come to pass. This disparity between the current fifth generation leadership and the former fourth generation can be seen as a sign of weakness and the fact that Ling Jihua managed seemingly transmit sensitive data to his brother out of China's boarders could encourage others to try the same. leading to more destabilization of the party and culture of leadership.
What the US gets from Ling Wancheng in this case may be impressive but it's more or less the booby prize. The Real impact is routed in the effect on the PRC.
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
Dude, you didn't READ the thing fully. The documents cannot be fresher than 2012 because Ling was removed from his position in July of 2012 and stopped having access to them. The Chinese had to have definitely triggered the release of the documents knowingly because these documents were used "to dissuade Chinese authorities from taking action against Ling Jihua." You cannot use that to dissuade somebody without telling them that you have these documents! In other words, Ling Jihua told them, "Do not mess with me or my brother in the US will provide secret documents to the FBI!" And they arrested him anyway (obviously after they did their investigations on what he had and when).
TerraN_EmpirE:
"...the fact that Ling Jihua managed seemingly transmit sensitive data to his brother out of China's boarders could encourage others to try the same."
Remember that Ling Jihuan and Ling WanCheng are not American spies; their goal is not to transmit Chinese intelligence to the US. Their goal was to successfully threaten the PRC from reeling Ling Jihua in for corruption, so it makes no sense for WanCheng to secretly cooperate with the FBI and hide extra, more sensitive documents without telling the PRC. It is in their interest, if anything, to make it look to the PRC like they have even more sensitive documents than what they did have. In the end, they failed, because they failed to secure Ling Jihua's safety. If anything, this serves to dissuade other PRC officials from trying to cover up their corruption with threats of security leak; it sends the message that you don't bargain with the PRC.
I would agree more or less with the above. Ling Jihua was involved in some kind of power imbroglio within CCP during the transition of power between Hu Jintao's administration and Xi Jinping's administration around 2012. He got involved by accident: his son died in a car speed accident, along with two young women in the car one dead one injured. The cover-up of the incident by the then security chief, Zhou Yongkang, who later fell from grace and was prosecuted by the current leadership, exposed the special relationship between Ling and Zhou.
Ling would not be the only or first high-ranking CPP officials leaking "secret" documents or information. Around 2012, there were also suddenly some media disclosure of financial assets of some senior Chinese leaders and their extended families, These included detailed investigation reports by New York Time and Bloomberg on former Premier Wen Jiabao and Xi Jinping. It was believed these were political maneuvers by the opponents, with Zhou Yongkang being the prime suspect.
Around the same time, the murder scandal of the wife of former Chongqing party secretary, Bo Xilai, had started to engulf a lot people, including Xi himself, which ultimately resulted in the attempted defection of Xi's security chief Wang Lijun at the US consulate in Chengdu. Wang brought with him, it was said, a lot of documents that would expose some dark secrets of the party.
I believe the documents that Ling Jihua gave to Ling Wancheng for him to take to the US are mostly of the same nature, similar to what Zhou Yongkang and Wang Lijun wanted to disclose to embarrass their opponents. They believe this would discredit their political opponents and show to the Chinese people and international community that they're merely victims of the political purge and power struggle, not the kind of villains that they were accused of.
If true, they were hardly the only sensitive political documents smuggled out of China in recent years. More than a decade ago, there were the Tiananmen Papers, disclosing the internal struggles and decision during the 1989 Tiananmen Incident. Then there were the personal recordings by the disgraced Party Secretary Zhao Ziyang, taken out to Hong Kong by someone close to Zhao.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
If this was about having insurance, Ling Jihua would've had to tell the Chinese authorities of his extortion. So when was his brother suppose to release the documents? Enough time to close the backdoors? That would be a reason someone in the US government leaked it to the media because it was worthless by the time they got the documents. I mean the guy was stupid enough to extort himself from a prison sentence for corruption to the death penalty for treason. He ain't so smart.
It doesn't matter what information was handed over and letting the public know because if you let the public know that the US has any information and name the person, that closes all the doors. Any one watch the movie The Imitation Game? That depicted the dangers of letting the enemy know you have information from what's suppose to be secret.
It doesn't matter what information was handed over and letting the public know because if you let the public know that the US has any information and name the person, that closes all the doors. Any one watch the movie The Imitation Game? That depicted the dangers of letting the enemy know you have information from what's suppose to be secret.
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I meant to say Bo Xilai, not Xi in the above paragraph. Wang Lijun is Bo's security chief, not Xi's. Sorry.
Skywatcher
Captain
Unless Ling Jinhua's brother is a MSS dangle.
If Ling dodges the actual death penalty, that's a pretty good argument in that direction.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
I can personally think up a lot of scenarios going either way but the most important fact here was this story was leaked to the public. That alone tells you the US got nothing to very little from these documents. Mentioning what they have just makes it easier for Chinese authorities to close doors and plug possible leaks in the future. The US just shot themselves in the foot. Which I have to conclude that's not the case because the information was virtually worthless from the beginning. If it were important information, who ever leaked it to the media should be facing charges themselves.
Equation
Lieutenant General
And you don't think the MSS knows and follows every key information handle by CCP hierarchy? What Ling Wancheng has is something more of an organization of a program (not so much like secret data that Snowden has). The US would sure treat this matter like a Chinese Snowden matter in order to heal themselves from that debacle that damaged their image. What better way to detract the audience than to say ...(hey it happens to other guy as well)?
manqiangrexue
Brigadier
LOL But they're for totally different reasons. Snowden defected because he said that he could not stand to be a part of the NSA spy network anymore, depriving Americans of their rights to privacy. Ling Jihua was really corrupt and tried something crazy to save himself from what he deserves... it didn't work LOL