The Democratic-led House Intelligence Committee released a report Wednesday warning that the United States intelligence community has not properly adapted to address the growing challenge posed by the rise of the Chinese Communist Party on the world stage.
“The Committee’s central finding of this report is that the United States’ intelligence community has not sufficiently adapted to a changing geopolitical and technological environment increasingly shaped by a rising China and the growing importance of interlocking non-military transnational threats, such as global health, economic security, and climate change,” the committee’s 37-page, partially-redacted report concluded. “Absent a significant realignment of resources, the U.S. government and intelligence community will fail to achieve the outcomes required to enable continued U.S. competition with China on the global stage for decades to come, and to protect the U.S. health and security.”
The report from the committee, run by Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, was released the same day that the House GOP-led China Task Force, chaired by Rep. Michael McCaul of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was also made public.
“For the first time in three decades the United States is confronted by the rise of a global competitor,” the intelligence panel’s China report concluded. “How the United States Intelligence Community meets the challenge of China’s arrival on the global stage, as well as the continued potential for highly disruptive transnational crises that originate within our competitor’s borders, the profound technological change transforming societies and communication across the globe, and the international order’s return to near-peer competition will have profound and long-lasting implications on our nation’s continued security, economic prosperity, and ability to preserve America’s democratic way of life.”
The report said that bipartisan committee staff conducted hundreds of hours of interviews with intelligence officers, examined thousands of assessments, and visited facilities run by more than a dozen spy agency elements, resulting in 23 public findings on China, 36 public recommendations, and more than 100 recommendations that remain classified.
“In late 2019, the emergence of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China demonstrated to the world the profound danger associated with transnational crises originating within China’s borders. China’s enduring interest in preserving its own domestic political stability and international image in lieu of fostering a transparent and effective approach to public health, placed the United States, our allies, and the world at risk,” the report said. “Moreover, China’s public response has been to further obfuscate the Chinese Communist Party’s role in this international health crisis through the calculated promotion of fringe conspiracy theories and misinformation seeking to shift blame to the United States, muddy the truth about the virus’s origins, and promote the image of China as a responsible global leader. Beijing’s complicity in stopping scientific inquiries into the origin of the virus, and its disdain for accountability, require a strong U.S. response.”
The Democrat-led committee concluded that “the U.S. government should strengthen its ability to categorize, disrupt, and deter the totality of Chinese influence operations occurring on U.S. soil.” But the committee found flaws that need fixing, including the fact that “the Intelligence Community has failed to fully achieve the integration objectives outlined in the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act for targets and topics unrelated to counterterrorism.”
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said he was pleased to see Congress putting so much focus on China.
“I’m glad to see that there’s Congressional recognition of what I’ve been saying since my confirmation: China poses a greater national security threat to the U.S. than any other nation,” he said in a statement obtained by the Washington Examiner. “As DNI, I’m committing the Intelligence Community resources needed to fully understand the threat posed by China and provide policymakers with the best intelligence to counter China’s activities.”
Detailing the broad scope of the China challenge, FBI Director Christopher Wray said in June that the bureau had “2,000 active investigations that trace back to the government in China,” and that the FBI is “opening a new counterintelligence investigation that ties back to China every 10 hours.” Ratcliffe said in August that “China poses a greater national security threat to the U.S. than any other nation — economically, militarily and technologically,” and “that includes threats of election influence and interference.” He said China is “concerned” that Trump being reelected would “lead to a continuation of policies that they perceive to be ‘anti-China.'”
Attorney General William Barr said earlier in September that he believes that China, not Russia, is the most assertive in election meddling, also saying China was the most aggressive at “trying to influence the United States.”
But Schiff has called Barr’s comments “flat-out false” and said that the intelligence community’s assessment is that “Russia was actively interfering, and actively engaging across a range of measures to influence the outcome,” while “China had a preference.” The California Democrat contended that “interestingly, some of the other administration officials have been trying to mislead the public by saying that China is the bigger threat to the country, and speaking in global terms because of the rising power of China.” Schiff said that what Barr did “was just flat-out mislead the American people.”
When asked about Barr’s comments, White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien said, “I agree with him 100%.”
Bill Evanina, who leads the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, released an intelligence assessment in August, warning that China sees President Trump as “unpredictable” and “prefers” that he not win reelection and that it is “expanding its influence efforts ahead of November 2020” to “shape the policy environment,” and “pressure political figures it views as opposed to China’s interests.” In addition, the counterintelligence official said Iran “seeks to undermine” Trump’s presidency. Evanina also said the intelligence community assessed that Russia is “using a range of measures to primarily denigrate” Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
The intelligence panel made a number of recommendations on Wednesday, including “the creation of a bipartisan, bicameral congressional study group to evaluate the current organization of and authorities provided to the intelligence community” as well as that the intelligence community “should formalize and broaden programs designed to mentor the next generation of China analysts.” The committee also recommended that the intelligence community “engage in a dialogue with the U.S. Department of Education on the requirements for the future of the U.S. national security workforce” and also “expand its diplomatic, economic, and defense presence in the Indo-Pacific region, to include in the Pacific Island Countries and Southeast Asia.”