Threat to US from China is ‘more damaging’ than ever before: FBI chief Christopher Wray

‘There’s just no country that presents a broader threat to our ideas, innovation, and economic security than China,’ he told the Reagan Presidential Library

While Beijing has repeatedly rejected Washington’s accusations, Wray said the FBI is opening new cases to counter Chinese intelligence operations every 12 hours or so

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FBI director Christopher Wray. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:14pm, 1 Feb 2022Updated: 12:22pm, 1 Feb 2022

The threat to the West from the Chinese government is “more brazen” and damaging than ever before, FBI director Christopher Wray said on Monday night in accusing Beijing of stealing American ideas and innovation and launching massive hacking operations.

The speech at the Reagan Presidential Library amounted to a stinging rebuke of the Chinese government just days before Beijing is set to occupy the global stage by hosting the Winter Olympics. It made clear that even as American foreign policy remains consumed by Russia-Ukraine tensions, the US continues to regard China as its biggest threat to long-term economic security.

“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,” Wray said, according to a copy of the speech provided by the FBI.

The bureau is opening new cases to counter Chinese intelligence operations every 12 hours or so, Wray said, with Chinese government hackers pilfering more personal and corporate data than all other countries combined.

“The harm from the Chinese government’s economic espionage isn’t just that its companies pull ahead based on illegally got technology. While they pull ahead, they push our companies and workers behind,” Wray said.

“That harm – company failures, job losses – has been building for a decade to the crush we feel today. It’s harm felt across the country, by workers in a whole range of industries.”