FBI director, Christopher Wray has called the acts of espionage and cyber-theft by Chinese government as the greatest threats faced by United States. Talking to the Hudson Institute in Washington, the director gave details of multi-pronged disruption campaign sponsored by Asian rivals. He said China had started coercing the return of its overseas citizenry and was active to Jeopardize US’s research on the mysterious disease that has rattled the world.
“The stakes could not be higher,” Mr. Wray said.
“China is engaged in a whole-of-state effort to become the world’s only superpower by any means necessary,” he added.
The spymaster in a nearly hour-long speech on Tuesday tried to paint a picture of Chinese influence and sabotage activities that directly or indirectly harm American and global interest. He outlined a grim picture of Chinese covert operations including economic espionage, data and monetary theft and illegal political and diplomatic practice, using bribes and blackmailing to assert its influence on American policy.
“We have now reached a point where the FBI is now opening a new China-related counter-intelligence case every 10 hours,” Mr. Wray said. “Of the nearly 5,000 active counter-intelligence cases currently underway across the country, almost half are related to China.”
The FBI boss accused Chinese Premier of running a campaign called “Fox Hunt” aimed at Chinese diaspora and dissidents residing abroad and seen as threats to the communist regime.
“We are talking about political rivals, dissidents, and critics seeking to expose China’s extensive human rights violations,” he said. “The Chinese government wants to force them to return to China, and China’s tactics to accomplish that are shocking.”
“When it couldn’t locate on Fox Hunt target, the Chinese government sent an emissary to visit the target’s family here in United States. The message they said to pass on? The target had two options: return to China promptly, or commit suicide,” Wray added.
This is not the first occasion, a US intelligence big gun has classified China as a top intelligence threat for it, but on Tuesday he escalated the ladder by emphasizing on the Beijing’s state-sponsored nasty programs to consolidate and increase its power and become the world’s only superpower at a time when the international political scene is looking to embrace a multi-polar identity.
The remarks made by FBI Director are evident of the Washington’s understanding of Beijing whom it categorizes as an aggressive adversary and is not ready to share power with. The nefarious Chinese design to counter America and replace it as global leader are neither new nor unrealistic given the Chinese economic muscle and ever-improving military might.
Since the novel coronavirus outbreak, US has consistently clubbed China for intentionally ignoring the virus, delayed response and concealing the information to betray the world. The power dynamics between the hostile rivals are expected to shift further in the coming days as Trump goes for re-election.
