Australia

China’s leading spy agency has been revealed as the organisation behind the sustained targeting of Australians detailed by the nation’s spy chief in his annual threat assessment.

In an exclusive interview with this masthead and 60 Minutes, ASIO Director General Mike Burgess has separately hit back at calls for him to identify the “traitor” ex-politician who he accused of betraying the nation in last week’s threat assessment. ASIO chief Mike Burgess says a former politician “sold out their country, party and former colleagues to advance the interests of the foreign regime”.

While Burgess repeatedly refused to name any overseas intelligence agency, this masthead has independently confirmed the spy unit he described as the “A-Team” in his threat assessment speech involves a division of China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) devoted to Australia.

And while Burgess also steadfastly declined to discuss the work of MSS, he said he stood by his rare and “worthy” decision last October to publicly call out the Chinese government’s “unprecedented” theft of western intellectual property through hacking and other covert means.