FBI Takes Frontline in Combatting CCP’s Covert War on US
Forty Chinese officers, a retired NYPD sergeant, two Navy sailors-turned-spies, and two minders of a secret Chinese police station in New York are all part of an ever-growing list of FBI investigations targeting Chinese espionage operations. The FBI has labeled combating Chinese espionage as its “top counterintelligence priority,” as China poses a severe threat to America’s core economic assets, including information, innovation, research and development, and technology. FBI Director Christopher Wray has stated that the agency opens a China-related probe approximately every 10 hours. The FBI’s focus on Chinese threats is a recent shift in U.S. policy, beginning around five years ago. The Department of Justice launched the China Initiative in 2018 to counter Chinese national security threats, leading to an increase in prosecutions targeting Chinese state-sanctioned theft of trade secrets. Chinese espionage and influence in the U.S. are difficult to comprehend, according to experts, and the FBI now takes cases against Chinese agents more seriously than in the past. Cases include Navy sailors selling military data to China, attempts to bribe an IRS official to target Falun Gong, and Chinese police officers harassing U.S. residents. The FBI initiates investigations by providing sufficient probable cause to assign a case agent, usually utilizing undercover agents to gather evidence. These investigations require approval, authorization, and budget breakdown before extra manpower can be added. The recent IRS bribery case involved an undercover FBI agent who posed as a tax official and received payments from suspects requesting an investigation against a Falun Gong-affiliated entity. These investigations are crucial in countering Chinese espionage and protecting U.S. national security.
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