FBI director says China is the 'defining threat of our generation'

FBI Director Christopher Wray reiterated his warnings about China and the country's cyber and physical threats toward the U.S. on Tuesday.

Wray spoke before the American Bar Association in Washington, D.C. The FBI director has been ringing warning bells about China for months, both in personal statements and in congressional testimony.

"Front and center is China – the defining threat of our generation," Wray said. "To put it simply, the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] is throwing its whole government at undermining the security and economy of the rule-of-law world."

"China’s hacking program is larger than that of every other major nation, combined. If each one of the FBI’s cyber agents and intelligence analysts focused exclusively on the China threat, China’s hackers would still outnumber FBI cyber personnel by at least 50 to 1," he added.

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"And it’s not just cyber, but also traditional espionage and economic espionage, foreign malign influence, election interference, and transnational repression – often working in tandem," he continued. "They recruit human sources to target our businesses, using insiders to steal the same kinds of innovation and data their hackers are targeting."

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"They’re engaging in corporate deception – hiding Beijing’s hand in transactions, joint ventures and investments – all with the same goal," he added.

Wray's warning echoes statements he made during a Munich security conference with U.S. allies in February.

Wray spoke to allies at the conference about hackers affiliated with the CCP that are known to have infiltrated critical U.S. infrastructure and remain "poised to attack" even now.

"You might find your companies harassed and hacked, targeted by a web of corporate CCP proxies," Wray told the leaders gathered in Germany. "You might also find PRC [People’s Republic of China] hackers lurking in your power stations, your phone companies and other infrastructure, poised to take them down when they decide you stepped too far out of line, and that hurting your civilian population suits the CCP."