Comment LONDON — In a rare joint appearance with his British counterpart, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray warned Wednesday that the threat posed by the Chinese government to Western companies is “getting worse” and suggested that China may take steps to insulate itself from economic repercussions if it invades Taiwan. Speaking at the offices of MI5, Britain’s internal security agency, Wray focused on the threat facing Western businesses and governments from what he called a relentless, multifaceted effort by China to unfairly compete in the global market. He also said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine could provide important lessons for geopolitics in Asia. “As you all know, there has been a lot of talk about the possibility of China trying to take over Taiwan by force,” Wray said. “If that were to happen, it would represent one of the most horrific business disruptions the world has ever seen.” He spoke to a gathering of British business leaders in what officials said was the first such event attended by the head of the FBI and the head of MI5. Wray said he’s sure China is “taking all kinds of lessons from what’s happening with Russia and its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. And you should too. We’ve seen China look for ways to insulate its economy against potential sanctions, trying to insulate itself from damage if it does anything to draw the ire of international behavior. In our world, we call this kind of behavior a cue.” Wray did not explain how the FBI drew a connection between Chinese efforts to reduce the impact of the sanctions and any possible planning to invade Taiwan. In the West, some cyber experts have been calling for more than a year to impose sanctions on China over government-sponsored hacking campaigns against hundreds of companies. The US and allies accuse China of hacking Microsoft and other companies The FBI director noted that when Russia was hit with tough sanctions after the invasion of Ukraine, “there were a lot of Western companies that still had their fingers in their door when it closed. A similar kind of sanctions against China, he warned, could damage the global economy “on a much larger scale.” Wray’s remarks represent the latest in a series of public warnings he has issued about the risks China poses to US and European economic interests. But Wednesday’s speech appeared designed to try to rally Britain’s business community to help fight Chinese hacking, the theft of trade secrets and secret lobbying in efforts ranging from human rights to the possibility — however unlikely — of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The island has been under military threat from Beijing since 1949, when Chinese Communist forces defeated the Nationalists in the Chinese Civil War, prompting the Nationalists to flee to Taiwan and set up a rival government. For decades, an uneasy peace prevailed. But the invasion of Ukraine has renewed concerns that China may try to follow Russia’s lead. Taiwanese officials warn that war is not imminent, pointing to their government’s close relationship with the United States and the island’s strategic importance. In May, President Biden said the United States would defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack, before the White House backtracked on that statement, maintaining a longstanding policy of ambiguity about the extent of American aid. Speaking to reporters after the speech, Wray said he did not know whether the invasion of Ukraine raised the possibility of China invading Taiwan. But he said China should see Russia’s experience in Ukraine — with the invasion triggering massive sanctions and a massive flood of aid to Kyiv from Western nations — as a warning. China’s “borderless” deal with Russia likely topic at Blinken-Wang meeting “I have no reason to believe that their interest in Taiwan has waned in any way,” Wray said. “But we certainly hope they will learn valuable lessons about what happens when you overplay your hand in the way the Russians clearly have in Ukraine – driving like-minded countries together in a way that is quite historic.” Also Wednesday, the US National Counterintelligence and Security Center issued a bulletin warning state and local officials to be wary of possible covert efforts by China to influence them. The bulletin states that “as tensions between Beijing and Washington have increased… [the Chinese government] has increasingly sought to exploit these subnational China-US relations to influence US policies and advance [Chinese government] interests. Leaders at the US state, local, tribal and territorial levels are at risk of being manipulated into covert support [Chinese government] agendas.” In London, MI5 director-general Ken McCallum said his agency was carrying out seven times as many China-related investigations as in 2018 and that China was at the “top” of the agenda for the intelligence-sharing relationship between the United States. , Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, often referred to as the “Five Eyes”. McCallum said his colleagues “badly need” new national security legislation to better combat piracy and covert influence operations originating in China. “The most game-changing challenge we face comes from an increasingly authoritarian Chinese Communist Party that is exerting covert pressure around the world,” McCallum said. “This may seem abstract, but it is real and pressing. We need to talk about it. We must act.” As the war in Ukraine sinks, US assessments face scrutiny The joint FBI-MI5 speech comes amid an effort by the Biden administration to enlist allies, particularly Europe and Japan, in trying to rein in what the US government says are China’s worst abuses of hacking, espionage and influence peddling. A year ago, the United States, the European Union and NATO formally blamed the Chinese government for a sophisticated attack on Microsoft’s widely used email server — marking the first time NATO, a 30-nation alliance, had taken such a step. That hack compromised more than 100,000 servers worldwide, and Microsoft claimed it was done by a Beijing-backed hacking group that exploited several unknown software flaws. McCallum said his agency was changing to address the growing threat, becoming “an agency focused on both addressing state threats and our vital role in countering terrorism.” “Hostile activity is occurring on UK soil at the moment,” he said. “We don’t need to build walls to shut ourselves off from the rest of the world. We need to build our awareness and make conscious choices to increase our resilience.” Ellen Nakashima in Washington contributed to this report.
