Security News > 2022 > February > US winds up national security team dedicated to Chinese espionage

The United States' National Security Division will wind up its "China Initiative" - an effort to combat what then-attorney general Jeff Sessions described in 2018 as "Systematic and calculated threats" posed by Beijing-backed economic espionage.

"We have heard concerns from the civil rights community that the 'China Initiative' fueled a narrative of intolerance and bias," Olsen stated in a speech delivered at the National Security Institute and George Mason University.

The US intelligence community's efforts to combat China will therefore change, with efforts to "Align our capabilities, tools and resources with those across the federal government" now the strategy for all nation-state threats.

He added "It is clear that the government of China stands apart" in terms of the threat it poses to the USA. "The government of China has also used espionage tools and tactics against US companies and American workers to steal critical and emerging technologies," he said.

Olsen also named China as the source of an attack on a flaw in Microsoft Exchange Server, and other cyber attacks that have cost US businesses billions.

America will therefore ensure it can defend against Chinese actions that threaten its national security interests, economic interests, and "Our democratic institutions and values to ensure that the promise of freedom remains a reality in the face of rising authoritarianism." That's an acknowledgement that China and other actors seek to incite division within rival nations to weaken their polities and, eventually, their adversarial policies too.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/02/24/us_china_initiative_ended/