Chinese cooks and spooks

ČOI inspectors raided 25 Chinese restaurants this week and closed down three of them for keeping a sloppy kitchen. Chinese restaurants have sprouted up like mushrooms across the CR but have attracted little official notice, although HN reported in 2002 that they're often used as fronts for money-laundering. Others have speculated that they're part of a plan by Beijing to create an informal spy network. Such a network already reportedly exists in the US. Paul Moore, formerly the FBI's top China analyst, said it is the day-to-day contacts by overseas Chinese that are causing the most trouble, not the exotic spy operations. The European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, a Brussels- based think tank, claimed that China is now trying to plant moles in Central Europe. So be double careful the next time you go in for kung pao. That sloppy cook might also be a first-rate spook. [Czech Republic China U.S. United States of America Centre espionage spying spies Hospodářské noviny Federal Bureau of Investigation food]