Chinese Assassin: Loose end not tied
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Tastentier — 10 years ago(August 07, 2015 03:59 AM)
I think China and North Korea are the only likely culprits. The USSR would have sent a white agent, who would have had a much easier time blending in. They'd probably also have done a better job of coordinating their espionage efforts with the East German HVA.
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prdarin — 10 years ago(August 13, 2015 06:36 PM)
I actually think she was part of the Stasi/HVA network that was operating in the hotel (along with the one woman with the short hair). I think they sent her to attack him so his cover wouldn't be blown when the report was found missing (they were listening in via the bug in the room so they knew he had taken it as opposed to just photographing it, meaning that questions would start to be asked once Mayer/NATO realized someone had stolen it). I mean, she was waiting for him and seemed to know where he had been.
Yeah, she was acting like she really wanted to kill him, but I think that was so it would look good. Kinda hard to beat yourself up, plus he would genuinely be alarmed and upset which would only help when talking to his superiors. Besides that, I think they figured that she was more skilled than him so there wasn't much risk of him seriously hurting or killing her.
Why would she attack him otherwise? Assuming she was a spy for the Chinese, why go after a low-level aide like that? What could she possibly be after? The report?
Besides that, NATO wouldn't be much of a concern for the Chinese in the grand scheme of things. They would be more concerned with SEATO if anything. In fact, they would possibly be spying on the Soviets rather than for themespecially by 1983. While both communist, there were great ideological divides and relations between the two weren't the best. Had WWIII happened, the Chinese may have actually fought against the Soviet Union. -
shaolins9 — 10 years ago(November 11, 2015 04:03 PM)
Nice take on it. I specifically came here to find out who was this assassin played by Yvonne Yung Hee Bormann. I agree that she might have been sent to provide cover for the fact that he'd stolen it, but it still seems far fetched to nearly die fighting(thought she must have died after falling from one story onto solid marble, risk getting caught and going to prison indefinitely.
I agree with OP that this was a bit of a lose end for me. -
!!!deleted!!! (41638798) — 10 years ago(February 21, 2016 11:10 PM)
I also assumed, after thinking about it for a moment, that she was sent to provide cover for him, once the theft had been discovered.
She had been in the hotel already, also as a staff member like the other creepy female agent who was always around and moving things along.
The Chinese woman had been his waitress of course. So she'd been around for a bit and it was set up for it to make sense in his mind that she'd show up in his room and he wouldn't question why (like, she was there to fight him and provide cover).
That HVA was SOME organization and for something that hugely important as those disks, they would have covered every base and every eventuality, most especially providing cover for their embedded agent afterward.
As for the fight, it had to look real. He had to be injured. The original plan probably was not for her to go over the bannister. But it had to be a real fight to make him look genuinely injured.
It was the Full Monty of redirection.
The HVA had that thing wired every which way. Including providing him cover, I think. -
zootie — 10 years ago(February 29, 2016 10:08 PM)
I took it at face value: she was a Chinese or Korean spy, and she was trying to kill him in earnest.
At the time, there was a split between the USSR and China, another "cold war" of sorts (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Soviet_split
). While they both were against the West on principle, under the surface, there were considerable tensions.
An operative w/o foreknowledge of another (and instructions to cooperate) would take aggressive action if she found another covert intelligence agent in the middle of her operation, even if such an agent would appear to be from a friendly power (even more so if the only other friendly power is not really so friendly).
That's how you have the USA and Israel spying on its allies (like with Germany a couple years ago). -
!!!deleted!!! (41638798) — 9 years ago(May 08, 2016 01:06 AM)
I actually think she was part of the Stasi/HVA network that was operating in the hotel (along with the one woman with the short hair). I think they sent her to attack him so his cover wouldn't be blown when the report was found missing (they were listening in via the bug in the room so they knew he had taken it as opposed to just photographing it, meaning that questions would start to be asked once Mayer/NATO realized someone had stolen it). I mean, she was waiting for him and seemed to know where he had been.
Exactly.
If that incident with her had not happened to deflect blame from Martin, the second they discovered the tape/disk was missing from the safe, he'd have been the prime suspecthaving opportunity galore to steal it.
They had a very carefully preplanned fake incident using their Chinese woman to create an incident that would get them looking away from Martin.
It was classic deflection and protection of their prime asset.
Otherwise, he'd have been blamed IMMEDIATELY. Martin was in the direct firing line of blame without making it look like the Chinese woman stole it.
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