FBI warns of espionage by China
Officials say nation is trying to steal U.S. research and assets
A senior FBI official said Wednesday that Chinese economic espionage, as well as efforts to steal U.S. research and influence American discourse, amount to “the most severe counterintelligence threat” facing the United States today.
Bill Priestap, head of the bureau’s counterintelligence division, joined two other senior security officials in outlining what they called Beijing’s long-term campaign to undermine the United States’ economic and technological dominance, and the government’s efforts to counter it.
China’s Communist Party “dominates every facet of Chinese life,” Priestap said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “It is therefore alarming that the Chinese government’s economic aggression, including its relentless theft of U.S. assets, is positioning China to supplant us as the world’s superpower.”
The hearing on “Non-Traditional Espionage Against the United States” came as announcements of indictments of Chinese hackers and other actions planned for this week have been put off for now, officials said.
The hearing also came as U.S. private sector and government investigators have turned up evidence that the Chinese Ministry of State Security, the nation’s main intelligence agency, was probably behind the hack of Marriott’s Starwood hotel reservation system, which exposed the private data of as many as 500 million people.
Homeland Security official Christopher Krebs cautioned that the investigation was in its early stages.