Nearly one year ago today, The Drill Down staff made a pitch to preserve and improve the Trump-era China Initiative —an initiative focused on identifying and prosecuting CCP trade theft and economic espionage. Here’s what we said at the time:
Since the year 2000, there have been 160 reported instances of Chinese espionage directed at the United States and 1200 cases of intellectual property theft litigation against Chinese entities (these are just the ones we know about). FBI Director Christopher Wren says, “The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat from China.”
But Mr. Biden, in all his infinite wisdom, shuttered the program even as FBI Director Christopher Wray was warning U.S. intelligence communities that China was literally digging in our fields to discover the secrets of our genetically enhanced seeds.
But Biden thought, hey, no big deal.
Since then, China has been emboldened, pushing the boundaries of acceptable international diplomacy to new and more dangerous heights. Take, for example, this spy balloon that was allowed to cross the continental United States in its entirety before behind shot down off the coast of South Carolina.
Remember —Wray himself said “There is no country that presents a broader, more severe threat to our innovation, our ideas and our economic security than China does.”
“The scale of their hacking program, and the amount of personal and corporate data that their hackers have stolen, is greater than every other country combined,” Wray added.
So why the inaction on behalf of the Biden Administration? This is a known threat. CHINA is a KNOWN threat. Wray warned Biden —heck, even then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions warned Americans all the way back in 2018.
“Today, we see Chinese espionage not just taking place against traditional targets like our defense and intelligence agencies, but against targets like research labs and universities, and we see Chinese propaganda disseminated on our campuses. … This Department of Justice—and the Trump administration—have already made our decision: we will not allow our sovereignty to be disrespected, our intellectual property to be stolen, or our people to be robbed of their hard-earned prosperity. We want fair trade and good relationships based on honest dealing. We will enforce our laws—and we will protect America’s national interests.”
The Trump Administration saw China for what it really is —the biggest threat to America on the global stage.
Why is the Biden Administration playing softball with those who want to bury us?
