Washington, July 22 (IANS) The United States was “extraordinarily negligent” as China expanded its military, intelligence and technological capabilities over the past 25 years, former White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster told Congress.
Testifying before the House Intelligence Committee, McMaster said Washington’s understandable focus on counterterrorism after the September 11 attacks allowed its counterintelligence posture to fall behind.
“The counterintelligence threat has lagged way behind,” McMaster said during a hearing marking 25 years since the attacks.
McMaster said the gap emerged as China and Russia grew more assertive and an alliance of hostile states began taking shape. China entered the World Trade Organization, gained enormous economic benefits and used its profits to expand its military and intelligence capabilities, he said.
China’s military had grown 46-fold since 2001, McMaster said. Beijing also invested heavily in the Ministry of State Security and the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front activities.
At the same time, he said, the US opened its economy to China and allowed scientists affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army and others to gain access to American intellectual property and expertise. That knowledge was used to secure commercial and military advantages, he said.
McMaster also criticised investments by US banks and private equity firms in Chinese companies developing military technology.
“So we were not only so far behind, I think we were extraordinarily negligent in this period of time,” he said. “And I think we’re racing to catch up and we have a lot of work to do.”
Seth Jones, another national security expert who testified before the committee, said agencies created after 9/11 to improve information sharing were not adequately prepared to confront hostile governments operating inside the United States.
Jones pointed to the National Counterterrorism Center, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Joint Terrorism Task Forces and state fusion centres. He said most were not sufficiently equipped to address threats from state actors.
“Our fusion centers and our Jttfs and most of our state and local entities don’t even know what to look for, aren’t equipped to look for the activities of the MSS in our states,” Jones said, referring to China’s Ministry of State Security.
He said local organisations could be the first to encounter Chinese intelligence or United Front activities but lacked the infrastructure to identify and address them effectively.
Frank Cilluffo, a homeland security expert, said counterintelligence could no longer be viewed solely as traditional espionage between governments. Foreign agencies were increasingly interested in private companies developing advanced technologies.
“If you’re MSS today, you’re looking at frontier model companies,” Cilluffo said.
The September 11 attacks prompted the largest reorganisation of the US national security establishment in decades. Congress created the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Counterterrorism Center to improve coordination and prevent intelligence from remaining trapped within individual agencies.
–IANS
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