Thread by @jseldin

Happening now: Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on #China

"A number of potential witnesses declined to participate in an open format for fear of retribution to them or their families" per Chairman @MarkWarner

"The long arm of #China is not some futuristic threat. It's already here" per Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair @marcorubio

"#China already, already has tremendous influence & control over what Americans are allowed to hear or say" per @marcorubio

"Hollywood is so desperate for example to have their movies shown in China that Hollywood won't make a movie that the Chinese communist censors won't approve" @marcorubio says

"The US pvt sector & academia have become the geopolitical battle space for #China" former @NCSCgov director Bill Evanina tells lawmakers

"Are we really competing?" former @NCSCgov director Bill Evanina asks, pointing to volume of #China's intellectual property theft

"To effectively defend against #China & compete effectively, we must put the same effort into this threat as we did to combat terrorism the past 20 years" per former @NCSCgov director Bill Evanina

#China's communist party "now compiles dossiers on millions of foreign citizens around the world using the material that it gathers" per former White House deputy national adviser Matt Pottinger

#China's targeted propaganda "focused not just on promoting whitewashed narratives of #Beijing's policies but also increasingly on exacerbating social tensions w/in the #UnitedStates & other target nations" per Pottinger

#China engaged in "overt propaganda as well as what I would call more shadowy schemes" in relation to #COVID19 at start of the pandemic, per former WH adviser Pottinger "....designed to create distrust & a lack of faith in democracy as a whole"

"#China has amassed the largest genomic holdings of anywhere in the world" @CSETGeorgetown's Anna Puglisi tells lawmakers

Former @NCSCgov director Bill Evanina tells lawmakers it is "common practice" for #China to target low-level US lawmakers & officials to get them in their pocket as they rise through the ranks

W/#DNA, #China "will use front companies...to set up stations to collect #COVID samples & fertility clinics" per former @NCSCgov director Bill Evanina "Every single time you do that, you're giving away all your data..."

Former @NCSCgov director Bill Evanina says US must protect US medical diagnostic companies from being acquired by #China, bcs it will allow #Beijing to get more genetic data

#China employs "nontraditional collectors" some of whom are "unwittingly working for the Communist Party" per Evanina

"They don't know that they're an agent of a foreign power"

"Oftentimes they can conduct high level research, at a ceramics lab or an institute, & then get a phone call one day by someone back home" per Evanina

re: #China's use of researchers, others for espionage