China is ‘greatest long-term threat’ to the US — FBI director

The US Director of Federal Bureau of Investigation, Christopher Wray, has said that the counter-intelligence and economic espionage from China posed the ‘greatest long-term threat’ to the US information, intellectual property and economic vitality.

Wray hinted this on Tuesday July 8, 2020, adding that China is seeking to become the world’s only superpower by usurping the United States with a government-directed ‘campaign of theft and malign influence’.

In a wide-ranging attack on Beijing’s behaviour on the world stage delivered at the conservative think tank Hudson Institute, Wray said that China’s ‘general fight’ against the US was playing out in fields ranging from local politics to industries including aviation, agriculture, robotics and health care.

He also said China had begun targeting Chinese nationals living abroad, coercing their return, and was working to compromise US coronavirus research.

The charges come at a nadir in US-China relations, with tensions boiling on a number of fronts including the coronavirus pandemic, Beijing’s handling of Hong Kong, and treatment of each other’s respective journalists.

In a nearly hour-long speech, the FBI director outlined a stark picture of Chinese interference, a far-reaching campaign of economic espionage, data and monetary theft and illegal political activities, using bribery and blackmail to influence US policy.

Wray said that it had reached a point where the FBI is now opening a new China-related counterintelligence case every 10 hours.

“Of the nearly 5,000 active counterintelligence cases currently under way across the country, almost half are related to China,” Wray said.

The FBI director said that Chinese President Xi Jinping had spearheaded a programme called “Fox Hunt”, geared at Chinese nationals living abroad seen as threats to the Chinese government.

In cases where targets were not cooperative, the Chinese government had threatened or even arrested their family members still in China for leverage, according to Wray.

In one instance, a Chinese emissary told the US-based relatives of a target to pass along a message to the individual, saying the target has two options: return to China promptly or commit suicide,” Wray said.

In the unusual address, Wray asked Chinese-born people living in the US to contact the FBI if Chinese officials target them seeking their return.

Chinese government has defended the “Fox Hunt” programme in the past, saying it is part of a legitimate anti-corruption effort.

US President Donald Trump has also highly criticised China and the coronavirus outbreak, repeatedly blaming the country for the global pandemic.

Recently this week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the administration was looking at banning Chinese apps – like the TikTok, alleging that the apps “serve as appendages of the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance state”.