Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray announced on Monday that the Chinese Communist Party's threat to the United States has become "more brazen" than ever in terms of hacking operations and intellectual property theft.
NPR reported that Wray made the announcement during a speech made at Simi Valley, California's Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum's "FBI: From Al Capone to al Qaeda" Exhibit opening rites. Wray, the eighth FBI director, highlighted that China remains a primary threat to the country's economic security in the long run in the face of Russia-Ukraine tensions.
"There is so much good we could do with a responsible Chinese government: crack down on cybercriminals, stop money launderers, reduce opioid overdose deaths. But at the FBI, we're focused on the reality of the Chinese government today," Wray said.
"When we tally up what we see in our investigations, over 2,000 of which are focused on the Chinese government trying to steal our information or technology, there's just no country that presents a broader threat to our ideas, innovation, and economic security than China," he added.
Wray pointed out that China has no respect for the norms of global leaders out of its "ruthless hunger for economic superiority" coupled with a "desire to influence American politics," which makes them more threatening than any Communist country. The Chinese and American economies, he said, are entangled due to the latter's demand for the former's products, and because both countries have a "steady exchange of students."
On top of these, China's "economic espionage" is applied in various ways that are at times so "subtle" it is easy to miss. One way involved the use of technology "to steal trade secrets" such as those in the recently foiled plot they have against GE Aviation. This strategy often gives China an "unfair advantage in the global marketplace" while hurting American businesses and employees.
China also employs "intimidation" or "money" in its effort to win the loyalty of American leaders, ensuring they "undermine our democratic process by influencing our elected officials."
However, Wray stressed that the FBI has made strides to parallel the Chinese Communist Party's efforts over the years such as disrupting threats through the use of intelligence like it did for the Microsoft Exchange email servers that was recently compromised by China.
"China may be the first government to combine authoritarian ambitions with cutting-edge technical capability. It's like the surveillance nightmare of East Germany combined with the tech of Silicon Valley," Wray disclosed.
The FBI has also partnered with various organizations across the globe to be able counter China's future plots while establishing a Cyber Task Forces and Counterintelligence Task Force in their field offices. The said task forces is supported by a National Counterintelligence Task Force.
"So, we're confronting this threat and winning important battles, not just while adhering to our values, but by adhering to our values. I believe that in the course of doing so, we're showing why the Chinese government needs to change course-for all our sakes," Wray emphasized.
Previously, Wray revealed during a U.S. National Intelligence leaders meeting in April that China's "unparalleled" threats to the United States included a cover up on the real origins of COVID-19 by manipulating the World Health Organization that conducted an investigation on it.
WHO absolved the Wuhan Laboratory as the source of the coronavirus in February, a decision said to be questionable considering the investigator was a former China CDC advisor that received funding the Communist government.
