China poses the most serious intelligence threat to the United States and is seeking to "steal its way up the economic ladder" at US expense, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Friday.
Wray, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington, said China poses a "multi-layered" threat to US interests.
"Economic espionage dominates our counter-intelligence program today," the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said.
"More than ever, adversaries target our nation's assets, our information and ideas, our innovation, our research and development, our technology.
"And no country poses a broader, more severe intelligence collection threat than China," Wray said.
"China has pioneered a societal approach to stealing innovation in any way it can from a wide array of businesses, universities and organizations," he said.
"They're doing it through Chinese intelligence services, through state-owned enterprises, through ostensibly private companies, through graduate students and researchers, through a variety of actors all working on behalf of China."
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