FBI director says China aims to become “world’s only superpower”

Axios logoFBI Director Christopher Wray gave a speech today at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. in which he laid out “more detail on the Chinese threat than the FBI has ever presented in an open forum.”

Why it matters: China’s increasingly aggressive behavior under General Secretary Xi Jinping is ringing alarm bells in the U.S.

Details: Wray described the multi-pronged efforts they have seen from China to take advantage of Americans and of U.S. innovation and technology, including the Equifax hack, theft of sensitive military technology, pressure to self-censor, and economic coercion applied to state and local-level U.S. elected officials.

  • “If you are an American adult, it is more likely than not that China has stolen your personal data. … Our data isn’t the only thing at stake here — so are our health, our livelihoods, and our security,” he said.
  • “We’ve now reached the point where the FBI is opening a new China-related counterintelligence case approximately every ten hours.” Continue reading.