China Is Biggest Threat To US: FBI Reveals 2,000 Active Investigations On Communist Party

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) warned Americans the Communist Party of China (CPC), which exerts dictatorial control over China, is waging a relentless and ruthless economic espionage campaign against the United States as part of its aim to dominate the world.

FBI Director Christopher Wray also revealed the CPC actively sought to influence the U.S. politics to “try to shift them in a more friendly pro-China, pro-Chinese Communist Party direction.” Overall, Wray branded communist China as the biggest national security threat to the U.S. today bar none, including Vladimir Putin's Russia.

Proof of China's unrelenting aim to supplant the U.S. as world leader is the incredible number of attacks it's launched against this country. Wray revealed there has been a 1,300% spike in espionage investigations into Chinese spying over the past decade. The FBI is now conducting more than 2,000 active investigations into Chinese spying.

“There’s no country that presents a broader or more comprehensive threat to America’s innovation, to our economic security and to our democratic ideas,” said Wray.

Wray described the persistent effort by the CPC to expand the reach of its economic espionage, which aimed to coerce “businessmen, high level scientists, high-level academics” into stealing confidential information and American technology.

Last January, the chairman of Harvard University's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, fell victim to Chinese espionage. This acclaimed scientist was caught by the FBI and was charged with lying about his dealings with Chinese agencies that paid him $1.5 million for research.

Professor Charles Lieber, 60, was arrested and criminally charged with making "false, fictitious and fraudulent statements" to the U.S. Department of Defense about his ties to a Chinese government program called the Thousand Talents Plan recruiting foreign scientists and researchers.

The Department of Justice also accused Lieber of lying about a lucrative contract he signed with China's Wuhan University of Technology (WUT). Lieber had established a research lab at WUT without Harvard's permission.

"Lieber was also awarded more than $1.5 million by WUT and the Chinese government to establish a research lab and conduct research at WUT," said the affidavit charging the professor.

China's chief targets are American business firms and educational institutions. Wray said the CPC is actively spying on Fortune 100 companies and trying to influence U.S. politics.

“It’s everything from Fortune 100 companies to startups," according to Wray. "It’s agriculture, it’s high tech, it’s aviation, it’s healthcare,” he said in describing the breadth of Chinese espionage.

Wray said the U.S. is rooting out Chinese covert interference, with the Congress also issuing a warning about the Asian country's growing influence in American universities.