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The United States and China have been in constant conflict in recent months over trade, the corona virus, and Hong Kong.
Chinese spies have stepped up their efforts to influence the upcoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden, a US intelligence official said.
William Evanina, from the office of the US Director of National Intelligence, said China is also targeting those close to Biden’s team.
In another development, a Justice Ministry official said more than 1,000 Chinese spies were suspected of having fled the United States.
During Wednesday’s online discussion at the Aspen Research Institute, Evanina, director of the anti-intelligence branch of National Intelligence, said that China had tried to interfere with corona vaccine development efforts and the elections. recent US elections.
“We have also seen an increase in activity, this has been planned and we anticipate that China will now turn its influence campaigns into the new government. [Biden]. He continued.
“And when I say that, the bad foreign influence, the diplomatic influence, in addition to other positive efforts, we begin to see that game across the country, not only with those who start in government again, but also those around us. the people of the new government. ”
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“So that’s an area that we’re going to be very interested in, to make sure the new administration understands that impact, what it looks like, what it tastes like, how it feels when it sees that.”
Both Biden and President Donald Trump have made harsh accusations during the recent campaign by Beijing-affected adversaries in the White House.
Trump focuses on Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China, while the Democratic nominee emphasizes Trump’s bank account in China.
During a similar discussion Wednesday, John Demers, director of the Justice Department’s department of national security, said that hundreds of Chinese investigators with ties to his country’s military were detected by FBI investigators. in summer.
Demers said the investigation began when US authorities arrested five or six Chinese investigators who concealed their relationship with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
“Those five or six arrests are just the tip of the iceberg and, to be honest, the size of the iceberg is something that I don’t think we or anybody else realize how big it is.” he said.
He said in the discussion that after the FBI conducted dozens of interviews with other people, “more than 1,000 Chinese PLA investigators have left the United States.”
“Only the Chinese people have the resources, the ability and the will” to promote such alleged political and economic espionage activities and other “malicious activities,” Demers said.
These investigators, he said, did not include a group of about 1,000 Chinese students and Chinese researchers whose visas were revoked by the United States in September.
The US State Department said at the time that it would only host Chinese students “who do not meet the Chinese Communist Party’s objective of military domination.”
In July, the US State Department also closed the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas, accusing Beijing of stealing intellectual property.
Beijing responded by accusing the United States of racism, but on Wednesday Demers denied that the US administration was classifying Chinese students according to their race.
Sino-American relations bottomed out after President Trump was on the verge of ending his dispute with Beijing over everything from trade to Hong Kong to the pandemic.
