Outgoing US Intel Chief warns China seeking global domination

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump’s top intelligence official is calling out China, describing the government in Beijing as the most pressing threat to freedom and democracy since the Second World War.

The warning from Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe is not the first of its kind from top U.S. intelligence or law enforcement officials, who for years have cautioned that China’s expanding economic and military strength presented a growing danger to the United States. But this call to action may be the most dire.

“Beijing is preparing for an open-ended period of confrontation with the U.S.,” Ratcliffe wrote in an opinion piece published late Thursday by The Wall Street Journal. “Washington should also be prepared.”

Ratcliffe, who was sworn in this past May after narrowly winning confirmation in the U.S. Senate, has consistently named China as one of his top intelligence priorities.

But in the months leading up to November’s presidential election, he repeatedly clashed with Democratic lawmakers, some of whom criticized him for promoting a “false narrative” by insisting China was a greater threat than Russia.

“I don’t mean to minimize Russia,” Ratcliffe told Fox Business News this past August, defending his record. “But the threats that we face from China are significantly greater … anyone who sees intelligence knows that.”

Economic, technological, military threats

Until now, many of the warnings from intelligence and law enforcement officials have focused on China’s efforts to overtake the U.S. economy.

According to the FBI, the number of economic espionage cases involving China has risen by about 1,300% over the past decade.

As of July, the bureau said it was investigating more than 1,000 cases involving China related to either the actual or attempted theft of U.S. technology.

But officials have also grown more wary of Beijing’s military, naming China, along with Russia, as one of the two main threats to the post-World War II international order in the latest U.S National Defense Strategy.

(VOA)