Photo: PA Images
FBI Director Christopher Wray and his British counterpart MI5 Director-General Ken McCallum held their first-ever joint press conference in London to warn about the security threat posed by the Chinese government's massive spying apparatus. Wray explained that China is running a "lavishly resourced hacking program that's bigger than that of every other major country combined."
The pair of top intelligence heads accused the Chinese government of working around the clock to steal intellectual property and classified military secrets.
"The Chinese government poses an even more serious threat to Western businesses than even many sophisticated businesspeople realize," Wray said.
"The most game-changing challenge we face comes from an increasingly authoritarian Chinese Communist Party that's applying covert pressure across the globe," McCallum said. "This might feel abstract, but it's real, and it's pressing. We need to talk about it. We need to act."
Wray said that China is targeting "companies everywhere from big cities to small towns -- from Fortune 100s to startups, folks that focus on everything from aviation to A.I., to pharma."
Wray added that the Chinese government is also trying to sway elections in the United States and, in one case, even considered using violence to prevent a candidate in New York from winning.
"A former Chinese intelligence officer hired a private investigator to dig up derogatory information and derail the candidate's campaign. When they couldn't find anything, they decided to manufacture a controversy using a sex worker. And when that didn't work out, they even suggested using violence, such as arranging for the candidate to be struck by a vehicle and making it look like an accident," Wray explained.