MI5 and FBI warns business leaders on Chinese spying
New Delhi: The head of the FBI and the leader of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency have delivered an unprecedented joint address raising a fresh alarm about the Chinese government, warning business leaders that Beijing is determined to steal their technology for competitive gain.
In a speech at MI5’s London headquarters intended as a show of western solidarity, Christopher Wray, the FBI director, stood alongside the MI5 director general, Ken McCallum. Wray reaffirmed longstanding concerns about economic espionage and hacking operations by China as well as the Chinese government’s efforts to stifle dissent abroad.
“We consistently see that it’s the Chinese government that poses the biggest long-term threat to our economic and national security, and by ‘our’, I mean both of our nations, along with our allies in Europe and elsewhere. The Chinese government was “set on stealing your technology, whatever it is that makes your industry tick and using it to undercut your business and dominate your market,” Wray said.
In a nod to current tensions between China and Taiwan, Wray also said during his speech that any forcible takeover of Taipei by Beijing “would represent one of the most horrific business disruptions the world has ever seen.”
Joe Biden said in May that the US would respond militarily if China invaded Taiwan, offering one of the most forceful White House statements in support of Taiwan’s self-governing in decades. The White House later tried to soften the impact of the statement, saying Biden was not outlining a change in US policy toward Taiwan, a self-governing island that China views as a breakaway province that should be reunified with the mainland.
(Vinayak)
