Is America at risk?
Congressman John Katko sounded the alarm bells in an op-ed published on Tuesday. The Republican from New York said that China was using our technology against us.
Appearing on Fox News, the piece focused on how China’s well-established actions were undermining “American intellectual property by targeting our academic institutions, conducting cyber espionage, and forcing the transfer of technology”.
The congressman’s concerns follow an October report published in The Daily Wire revealing that over this past summer. China was testing hypersonic nuclear-capable missiles – that could circle the planet before aiming at its target – something which stunned the Biden administration.
In the op-ed, the ranking member on the House Committee on Homeland Security writes that the CCP was actively engaging Chinese students before they arrived in the U.S. and encouraging “them to carry out specific missions.”
Katko elaborates by stating that although these types of espionage campaigns have been around for decades, given the high-stakes presented by China, the state couldn’t resort to inaction.
He drew on recent events to substantiate his point, writing about the Chinese professor at UCLA convicted of shipping banned missile technology to China. He also mentioned a Chinese student at Chicago’s Illinois Institute of Technology and a Chinese professor at the University of Kansas – the former had been charged for recruiting spies for the Chinese intelligence services, whereas the latter was indicted for concealing his ties to a Chinese university.
These instances of alleged Chinese espionage are enough for Katko to sound the alarm bells to the U.S government while discussing his ideas to combat these tactics by the CCP. Most of his efforts to fight back entail revising immigration and screening laws because he says the CCP is clearly “aiming to exploit our visa system and use it not only to their benefit but also to our detriment.”
