Amid world’s focus on Russia due its invasion of Ukraine, FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday said that the Chinese government poses the biggest long-term threat to economic and national security of Europe and elsewhere. He urged the business leaders to be aware of the threat posed by China.
Addressing business leaders in London, Wray said the Chinese government poses an even more serious threat to Western businesses than even many sophisticated business people realize. “So, I want to encourage you to take the long view as you gauge that threat and as you plan to meet it,” he said
Highlighting what this danger looks like, the FBI chief said: “The Chinese government is set on stealing your technology—whatever it is that makes your industry tick—and using it to undercut your business and dominate your market. And they’re set on using every tool at their disposal to do it.”
For one, he added, the Chinese government uses intelligence officers to target valuable private sector information—multiplying their efforts by working extensively through scores of “co-optees”, people who are not technically Chinese government officials but assist in intelligence operations, spotting and assessing sources to recruit, providing cover and communications, and helping steal secrets in other ways.
Wray said Beijing sees cyber as the pathway to cheat and steal on a massive scale. Last spring, he said, Microsoft disclosed some previously unknown vulnerabilities targeting Microsoft Exchange Server software. “Chinese hackers had leveraged these vulnerabilities to install more than 10,000 webshells, or backdoors, on U.S. networks, giving them persistent access to data on those systems. That’s just one example of the Chinese government finding and exploiting vulnerabilities, albeit a big one,” he said.
The FBI chief further said that they have seen the regional bureaus of China’s MSS — their Ministry of State Security — key in specifically on the innovation of certain Western companies it wants to ransack. He said he was talking about companies everywhere from big cities to small towns—from Fortune 100s to start-ups, folks that focus on everything from aviation, to AI, to pharma. “We’ve even caught people affiliated with Chinese companies out in the U.S. heartland, sneaking into fields to dig up proprietary, genetically modified seeds, which would have cost them nearly a decade and billions in research to develop themselves,” he said.
Sharing how Chinese companies help the government in collecting data, Wray said a whole lot of Chinese companies are owned by the Chinese government—effectively the Chinese Communist Party. And often that ownership is indirect and not advertised, he said. And those that aren’t owned outright are effectively beholden to the government all the same, as Chinese companies of any size are required to host a Communist Party cell to keep them in line, the FBI chief said.
“So, when you deal with a Chinese company, know you’re also dealing with the Chinese government—that is, the MSS and the PLA—too, almost like silent partners,” he added.
UK MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said the Chinese government has a longstanding practice of hacking and stealing proprietary information to try to get an economic advantage. Addressing business persons, McCallum said most of what is at risk from China’s aggression is not his stuff – “It’s yours.” “The world-leading expertise, technology, research, and commercial advantage developed and held by people in this room, and others like you.
