Thread by @jseldin

"The greatest long-term threat to our nation's information & intellectual property & to our economic vitality is the counterintelligence & economic espionage threat from #China" @FBI Dir Christopher Wray tells @HudsonInstitute

"It's the people of the United States who are the victims of what amounts to Chinese theft on a scale so massive that it represents one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history" per @FBI's Wray

re #China threat

.@FBI's Wray calls #China a threat to "our health, our livelihoods & our security"

"We've now reached a point where the FBI is opening a new #China-related intelligence case every 10 hours" per Wray

@FBI Nearly half of @FBI's 5,000 intelligence cases are related to #China per Wray

"This is not about the Chinese people and it is certainly not about Chinese Americans" per @FBI's Wray "When I speak of the threat from #China I mean the gvt of China & the Chinese Communist Party"

"#China, the Chinese Communist Party, believes it's in a generational fight to surpass our country in economic & technological leadership" per @FBI's Wray

"China is engaged in a whole of state effort to become the world's only superpower by any means necessary"

.@FBI has +1,000 investigations into "#China's actual and attempted theft of technology" in all 56 field offices, per Wray

"In the last decade we've seen economic espionage cases linked to #China increase by approximately 1,300%" per @FBI Dir. Christopher Wray "The potential economic harm to American businesses & the economy as a whole almost defies calculation"

Thefts of personally identifiable information "feeds right into #China's development of #artificialintelligence tools" and to gather info on intelligence targets" warns @FBI's Wray

"#China is engaged in a highly sophisticated malign foreign influence campaign" warns @FBI's Wray "It's methods include bribery, blackmail and covert deals"

.@FBI's Wray says #China has threatened partner companies in the US to leverage US officials

Wray says China also uses middlemen -some who act unknowingly- to pressure US officials or close acquaintances

"We had a state senator who was recently even asked to introduce a resolution supporting #China's response to the [#COVID19] pandemic" per @FBI's Wray

"All of these seemingly inconsequential pressures add up to a policy-making environment in which Americans find themselves held over a barrel" per @FBI's Wray

.@FBI Dir Christopher Wray warns #China targeting Chinese nationals outside of China who are viewed as threats - with an operation called "Foxhunt"

One target's family in the US was told to tell the target "return to China promptly or to commit suicide"

"If you believe the Chinese government is targeting you, that you're a "Foxhunt" victim, please reach out to your local @FBI field office" per Dir Wray

.@FBI Director Christopher Wray sounding more alarms about #Huawei

"If Chinese companies like Huawei are given unfettered access to our telecommunications infrastructure, they could collect any of your information that traverses their devices or networks"

"#China, as led by the Chinese Communist Party,is going to continue to try to misappropriate our ideas, influence our policymakers, manipulate our public opinion & steal our data" per @FBI's Wray, saying US mobilizing "all tools/all sectors response"

"We're having great success"

"When #China violates our criminal laws and international norms, we are not going to tolerate it" says @FBI's Christopher Wray

"This threat, the Chinese threat, is one of the 1st things they want to talk about" says @FBI's Christopher Wray of discussions w/US partners

"On this threat...I'm actually seeing a level of alignment & consensus, bipartisan...in a way that I've never seen before in my career"

#China "not an election specific threat" per @FBI Dir Christopher Wray "It's really more of a all-year, all-the -time threat"

"That has implications for elections and they certainly have preferences that go along with that"

re #Election2020

"What if the person who comes in and talks to you is someone you've known for 10-15 years, maybe a prominent donor to your campaign or some business you've had a relationship with in the past? Someone you trust?" asks @FBI's Wray, re #China influence

There have been hundreds of #China #Foxhunt targets in the United States "that the Chinese government is trying to reach & coerce" per @FBI Dir Christopher Wray

"Use your imagination..." Wray says of the tactics

.@FBI Dir Wray calls #China's #Foxhunt "rogue law enforcement, unsanctioned, uncoordinated with US law enforcement...that really exposes what this is really about, which is suppressing dissent"

"I think they are starting to get the message, without getting into some of the reasons we know that, that we're not going to tolerate any violations of our laws" per @FBI's Wray