Dramatic speech by the heads of FBI and MI 5: It's nothing compared to what awaits us

Dramatic speech by the heads of FBI and MI 5: It's nothing compared to what awaits us

The first joint public appearance of the two officials took place at the headquarters of MI5 in London, writes the BBC.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has said that China is the "biggest long-term economic and national security threat" and that it is meddling in US domestic politics, including meddling in recent elections.

MI5 Chief Ken McCallum said his service had more than doubled its activities in the past three years to crack down on the rise of Chinese activities, and that it would soon step up its surveillance of China's actions.

"MI5 is now conducting seven times as many investigations into the activities of the Chinese Communist Party compared to 2018," McCallum added.

Wray warned that a Chinese seizure of Taiwan "would represent one of the most terrible economic disasters the world has ever seen."

It's breath-taking

Then McCallum added that the challenge posed by the Chinese Communist Party "changes the rules of the game", while Wray said of the Chinese threat that its scope "takes your breath away".

The director of the FBI warned the audience, which included CEOs of large companies and members of the academic community, that the Chinese government "intended to steal their technology", according to the BBC, as Jutarnji list reports.

He also said that China's plans represent "an even more serious threat to Western companies than even many sophisticated business people thought."

He cited cases in which people associated with Chinese companies in rural America used genetically modified seeds that would have cost them billions of dollars and nearly a decade to develop on their own.

He also said that China has employed cyber espionage to "cheat and steal on a massive scale," using hacking programs incomparably more powerful than any other major country.

The MI5 chief added that cyber threat intelligence had been shared with 37 countries, and that a sophisticated Chinese airspace threat had been shut down in May.

Interfering into elections

The director of the FBI told the crowd that the Chinese government directly interfered in the congressional elections in New York this spring because they did not want a candidate who was critical of the Party and who participated in the Tiananmen Square protests to be elected.

"They hired a private investigator to dig up defamatory information about the candidate. When they couldn't find anything, they tried a sex worker, and when that didn't work, they planned to stage a car accident," Wray explained.

He also said that China is now drawing "various lessons" from the conflict in Ukraine. These include tactics to insure against future sanctions like those that hit Russia.

"If China invades Taiwan, the economic disruption would be incomparably greater than the one seen this year. Western investors in China would become 'hostages' and supply chains severely disrupted. I have no reason to think that their Chinese interest in Taiwan has declined in any way", the director of the FBI told reporters after the presentation.