The Washington Times
Beijing’s agents ‘more brazen, more dangerous’ than ever before, bureau head says
China’s intelligence services and related hackers are engaged in a “massive, sophisticated” program to steal information as part of a technology theft campaign larger than all other foreign adversaries combined, according to FBI Director Christopher A. Wray. Additionally, Chinese intelligence agents, including professional officers, government officials and co-opted Americans, are all part of a plan to obtain valuable American proprietary technical know-how to support the ruling Communist Party regime, Mr. Wray said in a speech in California on Monday night. The China threat today “reached a new level — more brazen, more damaging than ever before — and it’s vital that all of us focus on that threat together,” the FBI chief said. He noted that more than 2,000 FBI investigations are focused on Chinese efforts to steal U.S. information and technology.
“There’s just no other country that presents a broader threat to our ideas, innovation and economic security than China,” he said. “The Chinese government steals staggering volumes of information and causes deep, job-destroying damage across a wide range of industries, so much so that we’re constantly opening new cases to counter their intelligence operations about every 12 hours.” In some of his most extensive comments on the Chinese campaign, Mr. Wray, noting the FBI’s role in battling the Soviet Union during the Cold War, said the primary adversary for the U.S. now is with China.
