Republican Senators Urged the Federal Government to Reinforce Efforts to Combat CCP’s Espionage

According to Just The News on Mar 27th, several Republican senators penned a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland last week, asking for an explanation of his Justice Department’s decision to end a program to thwart CCP’s spies. In the meanwhile, they urged the Biden Administration to play a more active role in combating CCP’s espionage on the U.S. soil.

It was learnt that the Trump administration launched a so-called China Initiative in 2018 specifically designed to identify and prosecute those engaged in hacking, stealing trade secrets and conducting economic espionage for the CCP government inside the U.S.. However, the Department of Justice announced this February that it would implement a new broader approach called Strategy for Countering Nation-State Threats which raised the concerns of Republican senators that the ill-defined policy might not be effective at combating nefarious activities conducted by the ruling CCP. The senators believed that CCP’s espionage posed an immense threat to the U.S. national security. In light of the economic loss of between $200 billion to $600 billion a year resulting from stolen intellectual property, the Justice Department should confront the escalating threats and reinforce efforts to counter espionage and other illicit activities conducted by CCP. 

The report also pointed out the main force behind the pressure campaign to disband the China Initiative were Yale University and Stanford University, which both failed to disclose the funding provided by CCP.