The director of the FBI, in a speech on Tuesday arrayed severe criticism on China. Speaking to the Hudson Institute in Washington, Christopher Wray has said that acts of the Chinese government pose the “greatest long-term threat” to the future of the US.
He alleged that China had begun targeting Chinese nationals living abroad, coercing their return, and was working to compromise US coronavirus research.
In a nearly hour-long speech, the FBI Director outlined a stark picture of Chinese interference and its illegitimate acts aimed at influencing US policy, reports BBC.
“We’ve now reached a point where the FBI is now opening a new China-related counterintelligence case every 10 hours,” Mr Wray said. “Of the nearly 5,000 active counterintelligence cases currently underway across the country, almost half are related to China.”
Since the Covid-19 outbreak in the US, the Trump administration has attacked China on everything from its initial response to coronavirus to Hong Kong’s new national security law. Mr Wray’s remarks are among a series of hard-hitting speeches by senior US officials on the topic.
The Trump administration says it is 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’s own failures in office and to increase his chances of winning re-election.
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