U.S. secretly expels Chinese diplomats

American authorities suspect that at least one of them is a Chinese intelligence agent, the newspaper writes, citing American officials who refused to be appointed.

These are the first expulsions of China's spying diplomats in more than 30 years, says the paper.

The incident occurred in September in a highly sensitive “x1> near Norfolk, Virginia, where special forces were deployed.

Two Chinese Embassy officials in Washington, accompanied by their wives, arrived at the checkpoint at the entrance of the base and, after having no permission, the guard told them that they could only go in to get back, but instead of leaving the vehicle base continued on to the inside of the base until I was blocked from the trucks.

The driving motive has not been clarified, but American officials think Chinese diplomats wanted to control the security measures at the base. Diplomats said it was a mistake, since they did not speak English well and understood the guards ' instructions, which did not obey their American counterparts.

Their deportation, which occurred in the autumn, has not been announced by the US and China, and official Beijing has yet to retaliate by dismissing American diplomats.

The US and China just reached a preliminary trade agreement this week after months of tensions over additional tariffs. But differences between the two countries exist on a number of fronts, ranging from industrial spying to military supremacy, through human rights abuses from the Muslim Water minority to the situation in Hong Kong.

According to AFP, it is unknown whether there is any connection to the incident in Virginia, but the US government in October ordered China's diplomats in the US to announce the State Department before any official contact with a range of American co- talkers, and China in early December warned similar reciprocal measures.