FBI director says China poses 'very serious' espionage threat

Details expected during Capitol Hill testimony Wednesday

March 8, 2000
Web posted at: 2:20 a.m. EST (0720 GMT)

From staff reports.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- FBI Director Louis Freeh and CIA Director George Tenet are expected to brief the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday on what Freeh calls a "very serious" espionage threat from China.

The two officials are expected to push for greater counterintelligence resources to cope with the growth of international spying.

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The testimony comes as Congress gears up to debate normalizing trade relations with China, as provided in a bill the White House is expected to send to Capitol Hill Wednesday.

Freeh told Senate committee chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania), Tuesday that he and Tenet plan "to exactly lay out the parameters of that [Chinese] threat so that can be considered appropriately by the decisions made by the Congress".

"Would you characterize it as 'very serious'?" asked Specter.

"Yes sir, absolutely," Freeh replied.

Freeh already has briefed the House Intelligence Committee on the current counterintelligence effort to combat espionage.

Freeh: Cuba, Russia involved in espionage

A secret FBI report recently presented to the House panel begins with a description of the Chinese threat, which Freeh acknowledged Tuesday was "an extensive detailed" account of activities that "not only the FBI, but our other security agencies treat with the utmost seriousness".

Freeh also cited Russia and Cuba as nations which have stepped up their intelligence activities aimed at the United States.

Despite the end of the Cold War, sources tell CNN the extent of spying against the United States has actually increased since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

"We are not in anything except a growth mode," Freeh told Specter and Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-South Carolina).

"As you know by recently reported cases we have been continuing our efforts against the Russian intelligence service, the Cuban intelligence service," Freeh said.

"The cases and the allegations there indicate that these two countries obviously are actively involved in espionage activities against the United States."

Freeh cited no other specific nations for espionage activities. However, he repeated his testimony from last year that more than 20 nations use their clandestine services to acquire U.S.trade secrets.

Those trade secrets "go directly to the economic security of the United States, which today is tantamount to our national security," Freeh said.

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