New York Times: The United States is engaging in a broader range of espionage against China, including Chinese companies, to address the country’s status as both a military and an economic threat, the deputy C.I.A. director, Michael Ellis, said on Tuesday.
…Unlike past geopolitical rivals, China “poses a fundamentally different kind of threat to us because the competition is economic,” Mr. Ellis said at a cybersecurity conference in Washington.
Western officials say that under Communist Party rule, China does not have an independent business community akin to the United States or much of Europe. Mr. Ellis said that makes Chinese companies a legitimate target for espionage in areas like artificial intelligence, semiconductors and biotechnology…