|
|
|
China is 'greatest threat' to US, says FBI director
|
|
|
|
Top Stories |
|
|
|
|
IANS | 08 Jul, 2020
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray has said
that acts of espionage and theft by China's government pose the
"greatest long-term threat" to the future of the US.
Speaking to
the Hudson Institute in Washington, Wray described a multi-pronged
disruption campaign. the BBC reported on Wednesday.
He said China
had begun targeting Chinese nationals living abroad, coercing their
return, and was working to compromise US coronavirus research.
"The
stakes could not be higher," Wray said, adding: "China is engaged in a
whole-of-state effort to become the world's only superpower by any means
necessary," he added.
In a nearly hour-long speech on Tuesday,
the FBI Director outlined a stark picture of Chinese interference, a
far-reaching campaign of economic espionage, data and monetary theft and
illegal political activities, using bribery and blackmail to influence
US policy.
"We've now reached a point where the FBI is now
opening a new China-related counterintelligence case every 10 hours,"
Wray said. "Of the nearly 5,000 active counterintelligence cases
currently underway across the country, almost half are related to
China."
He said that Chinese President Xi Jinping had spearheaded
a programme called "Fox Hunt", geared at Chinese nationals living
abroad seen as threats to the Chinese government.
"We're 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."
He continued: "When it couldn't
locate one Fox Hunt target, the Chinese government sent an emissary to
visit the target's family here in the United States. The message they
said to pass on? The target had two options: return to China promptly,
or commit suicide."
This is not the first time FBI Director
Christopher Wray categorised China as a "top intelligence threat" for
the US, but on Tuesday he ramped up the criticism by focussing on
Beijing's "whole-of-state effort" to become the world's only superpower.
It
clearly signals that Washington now sees Beijing not only as an
aggressive adversary, but also an ambitious contender for global
leadership.
Since the Covid-19 outbreak in the US, the Donald
Trump administration has unleashed anger over China from its initial
response to coronavirus, economic espionage to Hong Kong's new national
security law.
Wray's remarks are among a series of hard-hitting speeches by senior US officials on the topic.
The
Trump administration says it's now time to wake up from the 40 years of
policy failures with regard to China, while critics see this as an
attempt to deflect attention from the president own failures in office
and to increase his chances of winning re-election.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Customs Exchange Rates |
Currency |
Import |
Export |
US Dollar
|
66.20
|
64.50 |
UK Pound
|
87.50
|
84.65 |
Euro
|
78.25
|
75.65 |
Japanese
Yen |
58.85 |
56.85 |
As on 13 Aug, 2022 |
|
|
Daily Poll |
|
|
PM Modi's recent US visit to redefine India-US bilateral relations |
|
|
|
|
|
Commented Stories |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|