The executives of the UK and US security services are making an unprecedented joint communication to warn about China.
The heads of the UK and US security services made an unprecedented joint statement in London on Wednesday to warn of the “enormous threat” that China poses to the world.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said China was “the greatest long-term threat to our economic and national security” and that Beijing “intervened in US politics”, including in the recent elections.
Ken McCallum, head of British intelligence service MI5, said that in the past three years his agency has doubled the amount of work it has done against Chinese activities and plans to double its efforts again.
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MI5 said it conducted seven times more investigations into the activities of the Chinese Communist Party than in 2018, according to McCallum.
Wray of the FBI warned that if China took Taiwan by force, it would “represent one of the most horrific job cuts the world has ever seen”.
This was the first joint public appearance of the two directors. It took place at MI5 headquarters in London.
McCallum said the Chinese Communist Party today marks an important turning point in Britain’s intelligence challenges. Wray said China posed an “enormous” and “overwhelming” challenge.
Wray warned the audience that the Chinese government is “determined to steal their technology” using various means.
He said this poses “a much more serious threat to Western companies than many sophisticated entrepreneurs realize”. He cited cases where people associated with Chinese companies in rural areas of the US dug up genetically modified seeds – a technology that would cost China billions of dollars and nearly a decade to develop.
He also said that China has engaged in cyberespionage to “deceive and steal on a massive scale” with a hacking program that is larger than all other major countries combined.
The MI5 chief said intelligence on cyber threats was shared with 37 countries and a sophisticated attack on the aviation industry was halted in May.
McCallum also pointed to a number of examples linked to China. Among them is a British aviation expert who received an internet offer for an attractive job opportunity. He went to China twice for “drinks and dinner” before being asked to provide technical information on military aircraft by a company that is actually a front for Chinese intelligence officials.
“This is where we come from,” McCallum said. He also said engineering firm Smith’s Harlow was approached by a Chinese company that managed to steal its technology, forcing the British company to file for bankruptcy in 2020.
He referred to the intervention warning issued by Parliament in January and even received by British prime ministers, on the activities of Christine Lee, the owner of a law firm working on behalf of British-Chinese relations. He was accused by an MI5 report of trying to influence British politicians in favor of China.
McCallum said such an operation was aimed at raising the voice of the pro-Chinese Communist Party and silencing those who question its authority. “This has to be faced,” said the MI5 director.
In the US, the FBI director said that the Chinese government directly interfered in a congressional election in New York in 1989 because it wanted to ban a candidate protesting in Tiananmen Square.
According to the FBI, China did so by hiring a private detective to investigate negative information about the candidate. Wray says nothing was found, an attempt was made to spark a discussion about a prostitute, and even staging a car crash was considered.
Wray said China had learned “all kinds of lessons” from the conflict in Ukraine. This included trying to protect himself from future sanctions, such as those that hit Russia. If China invaded Taiwan, the economic disruption would have been much greater than the Russians, he said. According to Wray, large European and US investments in China will become “hostages” of the Beijing government and supply chains will be disrupted.
“I have no reason to think that their interest in Taiwan has diminished in any way,” the FBI director told reporters after the speech.
The MI5 director said the new laws could help tackle the Chinese threat, but the UK should also be a “harder target” by making all segments of society more aware of the risks involved. He said the recent overhaul of the visa system has forced more than 50 students of the Chinese Armed Forces to leave the UK.
“China has long believed that this is the second highest priority,” Wray said. “They will no longer go unnoticed.”
– The text was originally published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-62076576.
source: Noticias
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