Chinese secret police proxy stole COVID research. Then he went to Milan.

April 27, 2026

Sam Cooper/The Bureau: The charges offer a rare window into how Beijing conducts its cyber operations — not through uniformed military hackers, but through a deliberately obscured ecosystem of private contractors and front companies. Two separate enabling firms, operating in parallel, under the supervision and direction of two named Shanghai State Security Bureau officers, according to U.S. court filings…