(Newswire.net— July 10, 2020) — The director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Christopher Wray, assessed that China represents “the greatest long-term threat” for the future stability of the USA, BBC reports.
Wray at the Hudson Institute in Washington said China had begun looking for Chinese living abroad, forcing them to return home, and was working to compromise U.S. coronavirus research.
“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 director of the FBI spoke about China’s economic espionage, data theft and illegal political activities, as well as the use of bribes and blackmail to influence American politics.
“We’ve now reached a point where the FBI is now opening a new China-related counterintelligence case every 10 hours,” Mr. Wray said. “Of the nearly 5,000 active counterintelligence cases currently underway across the country, almost half are related to China,” he said.
Mr. Wray said that Chinese President Xi Jinping is leading the “Fox Hunt” program, which targets Chinese living abroad, and Beijing sees them as a threat to its government.
“We’re talking about political rivals, dissidents, and critics seeking to expose China’s extensive human rights violations,” Wray said.
When it can’t locate the “fox-hunting” target they are searching for the Chinese government sends an emissary to visit the target’s family in the US. Then, the target is given two choices: “return to China immediately, or commit suicide”, added the director of the FBI. He called on Chinese people living in the United States to contact the FBI if Chinese officials “visit” them and ask them to return to China.
The Chinese government has previously defended the program, saying it is part of a legitimate fight against corruption.
This is not the first time that the director of the FBI has pointed the finger at China as the “greatest intelligence threat” to the US, but the tensions between the two countries have intensified.
In recent months, US President Donald Trump has often criticized China, accusing it of being responsible for the coronavirus pandemic, but also strongly condemning Hong Kong’s new law on national security.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke on the topic of China this week, saying that the American administration is looking for a way to ban Chinese applications for smartphones, including the very popular TikTok.