Heads of MI5, FBI warn about rising espionage threat from China

Attempts to obtain Western technology and expertise have been professionally planned and organised.

The chiefs of the UK's MI5 and USA's FBI made a joint appearance on Wednesday, raising alarm about China's efforts in economic espionage and hacking campaigns.

Speaking to an audience of academic and business leaders at the MI5 headquarters in Thames House, London, MI5 director general Ken McCallum and FBI director Chris Wray warned that Beijing was determined to steal technology for competitive advantage.

McCallum said China's attempts to obtain Western technology, expertise, and research have been professionally planned and organised on a large scale across decades.

During the last three years, his service has more than doubled its work to counter Chinese activities and will be increasing those efforts again soon.

Compared to 2018, the number of investigations into the activities of the Chinese Communist Party has increased by a factor of seven.

McCallum also said the "covert pressure" (aka soft power) the Chinese government is exerting around the world is "the biggest game-changing challenge we face."

The threat posed by China "might feel abstract", but it is "real" and "pressing."

"We need to talk about it. We need to act."

FBI director Chris Wray referred to China's activities as a complex, enduring and widespread danger to the US, UK and their allies.

"The Chinese government is trying to shape the world by interfering in our politics - and those of our allies, I should add," Wray said. He added that China had actively meddled in a New York Congressional election this year because it did not want a candidate who was a critic and a former Tiananmen Square protester to win.

He said China has set its sights on "stealing your technology, whatever it is that makes your industry tick, and using it to undercut your business and dominate your market."

The Chinese government's hacking efforts is larger than those of all other major countries combined, Wray claimed.

He urged business leaders to cooperate with the FBI and MI5 so they could continue to gather information about this danger - information that could also help businesses to determine if working with China is worth the potential loss of confidential data.

"Maintaining a technological edge may do more to increase a company's value than would partnering with a Chinese company to sell into that huge Chinese market, only to find the Chinese government and your 'partner' stealing and copying your innovation."

Wray also spoke about Taiwan, telling his audience that China could attempt to forcefully take over the island nation, which it has long laid claim to. If this were to occur, "it would represent one of the most horrific business disruptions the world has ever seen."

China denied McCallum and Wray's claims as "groundless," and labelled them as an effort to "smear" its political system.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the UK said both nations should "have a clear understanding of the trend of the time, abandon the Cold War mentality which has long gone out of date, stop spreading 'China threat', and stop creating confrontation and conflicts."