The August arrest of two former Chinese military personnel on espionage charges in South Korea underscores the urgency for Allies and Partners to counter the spike in nefarious activities orchestrated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), in particular.

Republic of Korea (ROK) authorities arrested the two reportedly People’s Liberation Army (PLA) veterans accused of intercepting communications between fighter jets and ground control and collecting information on movements of U.S. armaments near at least two military bases close to Seoul over a several-year period, according to the Yonhap news agency.

In a similar case, authorities arrested a former ROK defense intelligence employee in 2024 tied to lists of undercover agents leaked to a Chinese national. That year, ROK officials also caught various foreign nationals photographing sensitive military sites, according to The Korea Times newspaper.

Reports of such incidents have been increasing across the Indo-Pacific.

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The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) recently detected Chinese espionage efforts that attempted to gain information about personnel deployed on the BRP Sierra Madre at Ayungin Shoal. Chinese operatives may also have obtained schedules of rotational resupply missions in the West Philippine Sea, according to Philippine officials.

In addition to spying activities, China has engaged in the past decade in such activities as setting up at least 50 illegal “police stations” in over 30 foreign nations to intimidate, surveil and coerce Chinese nationals living abroad. In May 2026 in the United Kingdom and the United States, authorities sentenced operatives for respectively running shadowy “policing operations” and secret “police stations” on behalf of China’s government.

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In recognition of the mounting threats to their sovereignty, many nations across the region are updating their anti-espionage and foreign interference laws to match increasingly coercive tactics.

In February 2026, ROK’s National Assembly passed an amendment to its Criminal Act that expanded the country’s espionage law to include all “foreign countries” and not just “enemy states,” the Asia Today newspaper reported. The nation’s original espionage statute enacted in 1953 applied only to acts that aided North Korea.

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To counter the surge in foreign intelligence activity, Japan is also working to update its anti-espionage framework under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. Japan has recently seen a spike in Russian operatives, especially in Tokyo, attempting to obtain advanced military technologies for its war against Ukraine,

The Japanese government also created a National Intelligence Council and a National Intelligence Bureau, which launched in late July, to streamline intelligence gathering and analysis and foster cooperation across its federal, police and military agencies.

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In the past year, the Philippines’ Congress has been developing bills to update its laws to better guard against contemporary threats, including cyber espionage, information manipulation campaigns and foreign funding that seeks to corrupt and destabilize its institutions.

In March, the Philippines’ House of Representatives started working on a comprehensive anti-espionage bill to combine at least six existing House bills, according to the Philippine magazine Politiko.

“Our nation faces modern threats that are far more sophisticated than what our laws were designed to confront, and that is why this TWG [technical working group] must produce a unified legal front to defend our sovereignty,” said Rep. Nathan Oducado, who is leading the effort to consolidate measures to strengthen Philippines laws against foreign interference and espionage.

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