Chinese espionage is national security issue 1:52
(CNN) --
Senior US and British law enforcement officials met Wednesday with business leaders and private academics to draw attention to what they said is the serious security and economic threat posed by China. , which seeks to steal your intellectual property and influence politics in Western countries.
FBI Director Christopher Wray and MI5 Director General Ken McCallum held the event in London to highlight the two security agencies working together to thwart what they said was espionage and hacking's most serious challenge. computing by the Chinese government.
Beyond technology theft, China is now also taking steps to protect its economy from future sanctions should it try to seize Taiwan by force, drawing lessons from Western efforts to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Wray said. .
"We have seen China looking for ways to protect its economy against possible sanctions, trying to protect itself from harm if they do something to provoke the ire of the international community," Wray said.
"In our world, we call that kind of behavior a clue."
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He cited recent estimates from a Yale University study that Western companies have lost $59 billion as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war.
"And if China invades Taiwan," Wray said, "we could see the same thing again, on a much larger scale."
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McCallum drew attention to the fact that Wednesday's event was the first time the leaders of the FBI and MI5 had held a joint public event.
The two agencies have close ties, with MI5 agents working at the FBI and FBI agents at MI5.
Companies and universities have sought access to the growing Chinese market for decades as a way to expand their businesses.
But the risk has also grown.
"The widespread Western assumption that growing prosperity within China and increased connectivity with the West would automatically lead to greater political freedom has been proven dead wrong," McCallum said.
“But the Chinese Communist Party is interested in our democratic, media and legal systems.
Unfortunately, not to emulate them, but to use them for their benefit."
Wray cited recent FBI investigations into Chinese intelligence activity, including an effort to attack a US congressional candidate in New York because of his links to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests that were suppressed by the government. Chinese army.
He said the FBI had also caught people working for Chinese companies trying to dig up fields in rural areas of the US to try to gain access to genetically modified seeds.
McCallum said MI-5 is now conducting seven times as many investigations as it did in 2018 related to Chinese activity in the UK.