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MI5 and FBI Heads Issue Joint Warning On Chinese Spying (bbc.com) 67

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: The heads of UK and US security services have made an unprecedented joint appearance to warn of the threat from China. FBI director Christopher Wray said China was the "biggest long-term threat to our economic and national security" and had interfered in politics, including recent elections. MI5 head Ken McCallum said his service had more than doubled its work against Chinese activity in the last three years and would be doubling it again. MI5 is now running seven times as many investigations related to activities of the Chinese Communist Party compared to 2018, he added. The FBI's Wray warned that if China was to forcibly take Taiwan it would "represent one of the most horrific business disruptions the world has ever seen."

The first ever joint public appearance by the two directors came at MI5 headquarters in Thames House, London. McCallum also said the challenge posed by the Chinese Communist Party was "game-changing," while Wray called it "immense" and "breath-taking." Wray warned the audience -- which included chief executives of businesses and senior figures from universities -- that the Chinese government was "set on stealing your technology" using a range of tools. He said it posed "an even more serious threat to western businesses than even many sophisticated businesspeople realized." He cited cases in which people linked to Chinese companies out in rural America had been digging up genetically modified seeds which would have cost them billions of dollars and nearly a decade to develop themselves. He also said China deployed cyber espionage to "cheat and steal on a massive scale," with a hacking program larger than that of every other major country combined.

The MI5 head said intelligence about cyber threats had been shared with 37 countries and that in May a sophisticated threat against aerospace had been disrupted. McCallum also pointed to a series of examples linked to China. [...] The MI5 head said new legislation would help to deal with the threat but the UK also needed to become a "harder target" by ensuring that all parts of society were more aware of the risks. He said that reform of the visa system had seen over 50 students linked to the Chinese military leaving the UK. "China has for far too long counted on being everybody's second-highest priority," Wray said, adding: "They are not flying under the radar anymore."

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MI5 and FBI Heads Issue Joint Warning On Chinese Spying

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  • New Cold War (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Wednesday July 06, 2022 @08:04PM (#62679694)
    It sure would be nice if we as a species would stop fighting among ourselves so that we can give 50 or 60% of everything we produce to about .1% of the population. The entire American southwest is about to run out of water. With the money we spend building super yachts for that tiny percentage we could easily solve the problem.

    But we're way too distracted by nonsense social issues like woke mobs and critical race theory... Tribalism is a hell of a drug.
    • With the money we spend building super yachts for that tiny percentage we could easily solve the problem.

      By spending it on what? If it's as easy as you say, then that should be easy to answer.

      Though in my experience usually when you describe a solution to any given problem as "easy", your solution is either counterproductive (causes the opposite effect) or isn't even relevant to the problem.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by rsilvergun ( 571051 )
        Let's see, how about we start with some desalinization plants so that the entire Southwest doesn't run out of water. Then let's go ahead and do the green New deal so that we can not all run out of food and water because of the changes to the environment or have to deal with the tens of millions of climate refugees. Oh and the United States and China both still have privately run healthcare systems that absolutely suck. China's private health Care system is so bad they did hyper lockdowns because they were t
        • Re:New Cold War (Score:4, Informative)

          by ArmoredDragon ( 3450605 ) on Thursday July 07, 2022 @01:54AM (#62680248)

          Let's see, how about we start with some desalinization plants so that the entire Southwest doesn't run out of water.

          A) Not going to do enough. Not even close.
          B) Money isn't the reason there aren't more. Not only do they have the money for it, but the People's Republic of California is, in at least some cases, forbidding it:

          https://www.reuters.com/world/... [reuters.com]

          Then let's go ahead and do the green New deal so that we can not all run out of food and water because of the changes to the environment or have to deal with the tens of millions of climate refugees.

          A) The "green new deal" isn't about climate change:
          https://www.yahoo.com/entertai... [yahoo.com]
          B) Even if you did do this, there's no guarantee that it will do anything about droughts in particular. There isn't even a correlational relationship between drought and climate change.
          C) Even if A and B were the case, another problem you're dealing with is that the pundits claim that it's about reducing emissions, meaning that not only would this not have any short term impact, but any possible improvement would take decades, if not a century or more.

          Oh and the United States and China both still have privately run healthcare systems that absolutely suck. China's private health Care system is so bad they did hyper lockdowns because they were terrified of their system collapsing. Covid is quite survivable if you get medical treatment but if the hospital system collapses, heck a country like China would probably have tens of millions of death, maybe hundreds.

          What does this have to do with the southwest running out of water?

          When we're talking about the kind of money the .1% have we're no longer talking about buying shit we're talking about basic allocation of resources of human civilization. It's so much money and power it's beyond the ability of mortals to understand. It's like trying to comprehend Infinity.

          No, it's really not. I don't know what makes you think throwing money at any given problem solves it, because that's literally exactly what you're proposing. Take for example the recent global food shortage -- you can't just say "oh spend more money on agriculture!" It's really not that simple at all.

          Your solutions honestly sound like you just got done playing a game of Civilization 6 and then decided that because you won a science victory, you suddenly now know how to run the world. Would be like a Sim City player saying "if only the city built more police stations, we'd have less crime!"

          • Not only do they have the money for it, but the People's Republic of California is, in at least some cases, forbidding it:

            As stated in the Reuters article you linked, the California Coastal Commission voted against one desalination plant but has approved

            11 other desalination plants, including another one that Poseidon has operated down the coast in Carlsbad since 2015. The Carlsbad desalination plant, the largest in the United States, turns ocean water to drinking water in 90 minutes, but it was built on more elevated geography and approved before statewide desalination regulations came into effect.

            So with only that single plant in Huntington Beach being blocked, on the whole California have been pretty positive about using desalination plants to improve its water supply. The technology that Poseidon uses was developed in Israel and produces a significant percentage of the San Diego potable water supply, with significant new capacity being added in the near future.

            • None of this is at odds with anything I said.

              • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

                by Anonymous Coward
                it is called lying by omission - leaving out important facts in a statement to make your claim seem more viable. You left out the fact that california only blocked 1 plant, and approved several others, to make it sound like california was actively blocking desalination stop pretending to not know what you did
                • Completely wrong. My point was that money isn't the reason why desalination won't work.

                  • My point was that money isn't the reason why desalination won't work.

                    Desalination "works". It does exactly what it is expected to do by those who implement it.
                    Israel depends on it and cannot function without it.
                    California has been adding desalination plants and will be adding more.
                    It provides proven potable water solutions at an affordable price.

                    So what is your point about "why desalination won't work"...?

          • As the saying goes never left perfect be the enemy of good. It's amazing to watch the climate change deniers go from denying to saying that it's real and we don't need to do anything to saying that it's real and it's too late to do anything.

            I don't know if you work from Fox News but you're using their talking points whether you know it or not. You should be aware of the propaganda you're absorbing.
    • by gtall ( 79522 )

      And also the Christian Taliban's Satanic Influences of the Month.

    • You are not smart enough to realize that if you took all the wealthy peoples money and gave it to every American it would be like $300. And they would spend it and create additional inflation. Please take an economics class please!!
    • That's a disappointingly childish analysis. You could boil that all down to moaning over the necessity of politics given the existence of scarcity.

      Oh, and just for future reference - the US "Super Yacht" market is around $7-800 million dollars, with the entire US yacht market being probably around $2.4 billion. If you took the entire global yacht market and gave that money to everyone, it would come out to a little over a buck a person. Size of the global yacht market - $8.5 billion (https://www.grand

  • of a certain CNN article [cnn.com]:

    Trump called out China for "espionage to steal our industrial secrets, of which there are many," announced steps to protect American investors from Chinese financial practices, accused Beijing of "unlawfully claiming territory in the Pacific Ocean" and threatening freedom of navigation.

    And yet, he was called a lunatic.

    • Re:That reminds me (Score:5, Insightful)

      by q4Fry ( 1322209 ) on Wednesday July 06, 2022 @08:36PM (#62679772)

      That's not why he was called a lunatic, and you know it, too. I hear he also breathes air and eats food. Well. A variant of food, anyway.

    • by gtall ( 79522 )

      And yet, his and his daughter's tat is still being produced in China. Something about not being able to produce it cheaper elsewhere.

      Several administrations have called out China for "espionage to steal our industrial secrets, of which there are many,' ". His answer was tariffs that pleased American companies because now they could charge Americans more for their stuff. And the Chinese never did fulfill the "trade agreement" from the "master negotiator".

      Several administrations have "accused Beijing of 'unla

      • Unfortunately, the person who got that agreement is no longer responsible for making sure the other side gets penalized for failing to uphold its end, as he was replaced by someone whose family has received tens of millions of dollars in "definitely not bribes" from the CCP.
  • Can we have a warning about how it's illegal to spy on Americans in America, but it's fine to share intel with a different nation, and then accept information from them?Can we have a warning about the percentage of international cables tapped by three letter agencies? (hint: all of them)Can we have a warning about the massive amount of information freely shared by American corporations and kept on foreign servers where that helps legality? About the spike in broad nets used to investigate petty crimes? Ooh,
  • by AmazingRuss ( 555076 ) on Wednesday July 06, 2022 @10:58PM (#62680030)
    ... mah Every Day Low Prices!
  • They say nothing about US and UK agencies/companies doing exactly the same around the world, it's not the chinese who are the only ones doing it. And then again, if you block certain countries from being able to use/buy technology then it makes perfect sense they would try to get it some other way. So don't go pointing fingers. And lets be honest US and UK agencies aren't to be trusted with giving out information like this, we've been lied yo by them so many times all because they have a secret agenda of th
  • Lots of subterfuge, denials, and whataboutisms being posted on this topic. Several PLA actors here are really embracing the Article 14, section 10 (public opinion warfare) of the 2010 revision of the Three Warfares strategy. Good job, guys. I hope your CCP social credit scores inch up enough so you can take a choo choo train rides back home to visit mama he baba this year.
  • Having warning from the US and UK only, appears pro-Western. Adding a non- Anglo-Saxon country (Germany? Japan? Korea? Israel?) into the joint-warning, would carry more weight. I wonder though, how much is there cooperation exists between intelligence services of those other countries, and what do they think about the subject matter.
  • Swalwell should be hung!

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