US intelligence chiefs warn senators that China continues to grow as a security threat
- Officials united in assessment of China as a leading cyberespionage and counter-intelligence risk to the US
- Concerns about China were paired with those about Russia, with the two countries seen as most strategically aligned against the US since the 1950s
United States intelligence and national security chiefs issued a harsh warning on Tuesday about China’s cyberespionage and counter-intelligence threats, a day before high-stakes trade talks between the two countries are set to begin in Washington.
“The Chinese counter-intelligence threat is more deep, more diverse, more vexing, more challenging, more comprehensive and more concerning than any counter-intelligence threat that I can think of,” FBI Director Christopher Wray testified at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.
The number of economic espionage investigations that the FBI is pursuing in its 56 field offices has doubled in recent years, said Wray, who added that “almost all of them lead back to China.”
The officials paired their concerns about China with those they held about Russia, with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats warning that Russian influence campaigns on social media would continue to try to stir divisive social and racial tensions in the US.
In a report on worldwide threats to the US released at Tuesday's hearing, Coats said that China and Russia were more strategically aligned than any other time since the mid-1950s, and that changes in US security and trade policy were causing American allies and partners to seek “greater independence from Washington”.