MI5, FBI chiefs warn over China in rare joint address

LONDON: The heads of MI5 and the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned on Wednesday about China’s commercial espionage thrust in the West, in a rare joint address at the British intelligence service’s London headquarters.

Speaking to an audience of officials and business executives in Thames House, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum and FBI Director Chris Wray said the threat from Chinese spies is paramount in both countries and only continues to grow.

McCallum said MI5, the British domestic intelligence service, 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.”

He 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 now,” he said.