FBI Director Christopher Ray said the biggest threat to the United States in the long run is economic espionage by China, stressing that this poses a threat to its economic and national security.

Ray said, during his participation in a seminar organized by the Hudson Institute entitled "China's attempt to influence American institutions" that China is currently working to undermine health companies and US pharmaceutical companies working to find a vaccine against the Corona virus.

And he added that half of the 5,000 open anti-spyware cases - of which the FBI is working in America - are currently working - related to China.

The American security official spoke of a 1300% increase in cases of suspected Chinese economic espionage of his country, saying that "the people of the United States are victims of Chinese theft, which is so widespread that it is one of the largest transfers of wealth in human history."

Regarding a possible interference by China in the US presidential elections scheduled for next November, the FBI director said that Beijing is leading broad intelligence operations that include pushing for options that suit it, without clarifying whether it supports the current President Donald Trump - who His administration has entered into a standoff with China over economic and human rights issues and the outbreak of Coronavirus and others - the mother of his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

China has consistently denied that it interferes in US affairs or spies on its companies in order to steal economic secrets, and the two countries fought a trade war during the past two years, during which Trump imposed large fees on Chinese goods, and by the beginning of this year they entered into a similar truce by signing a transitional trade agreement described in historical terms. .

On suspicion of espionage, the Trump administration targeted Chinese companies, led by the giant Huawei, as it sought to tighten the screws on it inside the United States and other allies, after it was considered a threat to American national security.