FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed on July 18 that the FBI is investigating Chinese economic espionage cases in all 50 U.S. states, and that China is regarded as the \u201cmost significant\u201d long-term threat to the United States.<\/p>\n
Wray, speaking to NBC at the Aspen Ideas Forum on July 18, said Chinese espionage \u201ccovers everything from corn seeds in Iowa to wind turbines in Massachusetts and everything in between.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using a set of unconventional warfare methods against the United States, designed to achieve the goals of war without the need for troop-on-troop combat. This includes subversive methods to infiltrate and undermine U.S. institutions, propaganda operations to alter public perception, economic warfare programs to steal from the U.S. economy, and more.<\/p>\n
Many of these strategies were outlined<\/a> in a 1999 Chinese military book, \u201cUnrestricted Warfare.\u201d Many of the tactics also pull from older subversive methods used by the Soviet Union,\u00a0and go beyond them.<\/p>\n Subversion is used by communist regimes to gradually seize control of a country by attacking and undermining the institutions that make it function, driving its population into conflict, in order to bring the country to a state of crisis that allows for outside intervention, either through foreign invasion or a new political structure.<\/p>\n It is also designed to gradually achieve the goal of creating a communist state by subverting and destroying religious belief, morality, and tradition through infiltrating institutions, and by creating advocacy movements, among other methods.<\/p>\n House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) brought attention to the economic arm of the CCP\u2019s unrestricted warfare system in a hearing on July 19.<\/p>\n Commenting on the hearing, Frank Gaffney, president and CEO of the Center for Security Policy, said in an interview with Secure Freedom Minute Radio that\u00a0\u201camidst the political jockeying in Washington to establish which party is more hostile to Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia, an even more ominous threat is getting scant attention.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFortunately, the fact that Communist China has actually been waging \u2018unrestricted warfare\u2019 against the United States for decades is the focus of an important congressional hearing today,\u201d Gaffney said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe hearing is particularly timely in light of President Trump\u2019s efforts to use tariffs, investment restrictions, and other measures to fight back. It may be one of our last chances to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n The CCP\u2019s unrestricted warfare system is often highlighted in discussions about Chinese cyber threats and theft of intellectual property, but the strategies go far beyond this.<\/p>\n