The heads of the United Kingdom and the United States’ domestic intelligence services have raised alarms about Chinese economic espionage in a rare joint address in London.
Ken McCallum, the director of the UK’s MI5, said on Wednesday that the Chinese government’s “covert pressure across the globe” amounts to “the most game-changing challenge we face”, while Chris Wray, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), warned Western firms that Beijing was determined to steal their technology for competitive gain.
China immediately rejected the accusations as “groundless”, labelling them an attempt to “smear” its political system.
McCallum and Wray’s address was their first joint appearance and took place in London’s Thames House, with officials and business executives in attendance.
The Chinese threat “might feel abstract. But it’s real and it’s pressing,” McCallum said. “We need to talk about it. We need to act.”
He said the MI5 had sharply expanded its China-focused operations.
“Today we’re running seven times as many investigations as we were in 2018,” he said. “We plan to grow as much again, while also maintaining significant effort against Russian and Iranian covert threats.”
McCallum said Chinese intelligence takes a slow and patient approach to developing sources and gaining access to information, and few of those targeted recognised themselves as such.
“Hostile activity is happening on UK soil right…
