The U.S. federal law enforcement agency said there has been a 40 per cent increase in CCP-linked espionage arrests during the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term.
In an interview by Real America’s Voice, the Director of U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Kash Patel said that the higher rate of arrests was due to Trump’s renewed directives.
Trump started the directives during his first term but the previous administration under Joe Biden ended the efforts.
“This is just another disastrous example of failing to protect national security by the Biden administration,” Patel said.
“Who takes down an initiative against our number one adversary, the CCP, when they are not only conducting counter-espionage activities here in the homeland against Americans, but also overseas, and importing illegal biopathogens to harm our way of life?” he said.
“That is an intentional, poor decision to the detriment of our national security.”
“President Trump came in and said, we’re reversing course,” Patel added. “We don’t necessarily need a new initiative. We just need the FBI all in against the CCP.”
The FBI has heavily reprioritized its counterintelligence efforts to combat the threat from the CCP.
According to 2020 statistics, CCP-related cases account for roughly half of the FBI’s nearly 5,000 active counterintelligence cases.
The bureau is employing enhanced, multi-layered strategies to disrupt economic espionage and cyberattacks, including operations like Volt Typhoon.
Last month, officials uncovered an illegal biological lab in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In late 2023, a similar setup was found in Reedley, California, where investigators reportedly discovered materials possibly associated with infectious diseases, including hepatitis, COVID-19, HIV, malaria and other potentially dangerous pathogens.
Both cases are tied to a Chinese national Zhu Jiabei who is currently awaiting trial.
The FBI is now investigating links to biological labs in Las Vegas and California.
