Plans for the ornamental garden were made public in 2017. The garden was set to expand to some 12 acres and was billed as “one of the most ambitious Chinese gardens ever built in the West.” The National China Garden, as the garden should have been called, should have strengthened the ties between America and China.
The garden doesn’t seem to succeed in that at all. According to CNN, counterintelligence officials smelled danger as they dived into the project. The white pagoda, some 20 meters high, would be strategically placed on one of the highest points in Washington DC, about two miles from the United States Capitol. According to CNN, that would be a strategic place to intercept various signals from the Capitol. “It was also disturbing that Chinese officials wanted to build the pagoda with materials that would be shipped to the US in diplomatic bags,” CNN writes. Those diplomatic bags should not be examined by US customs officials.
Nuclear weapons
According to CNN, counterintelligence officials have further discovered that China has equipment capable of “capturing and interfering with Defense Ministry communications.” The equipment would also be capable of interfering with communications from the Strategic Air Command, which oversees US nuclear weapons.
After the discoveries, the Americans halted the garden project, the Chinese government strongly denies any attempt to spy on the US.