January 1, FBI Director Says Threat from China ‘More Brazen’ Than Ever

FBI Director Christopher Wray said the threat to Western countries from the Chinese government is “more brazen” than ever before, accusing China of stealing American innovations and launching massive hacking operations.

Wray’s remarks came during a speech at the Reagan Presidential Library just days ahead of the Winter Olympics in Beijing.

“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 Wray, the FBI is opening new cases to counter Chinese intelligence operations roughly every 12 hours.

“The harm from the Chinese government’s economic espionage isn’t just that its companies pull ahead based on illegally gotten 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.”

Source:

FBI director says the threat from China is ‘more brazen’ than ever before