China expands targeting of U.S with Russian-style covert influence operations

China’s government is expanding the use of covert influence operations targeting the United States and is expected to exploit the White House-congressional clash over the debt limit crisis as part of growing anti-U.S. activities, the director of national intelligence said.

The most recent DNI annual threat assessment warned that China’s efforts are nearing the aggressive intensity of similar covert disinformation operations from Russia, including the use of intelligence agents, cybertools and social media to meddle in U.S. elections, weaken national security laws and exacerbate domestic divisions.

“Beijing’s growing efforts to actively exploit perceived U.S. societal divisions using its online personas move it closer to Moscow’s playbook for influence operations,” the assessment states.

The report described Russian disinformation as one of the “most serious foreign influence threats to the United States.”

Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, disclosed in congressional testimony on May 4 that China is expected to use the looming government crisis over raising the debt ceiling in its anti-U.S. influence campaigns.

The federal government could run out of money around June 1, risking a catastrophic financial default, unless the current $31.4 trillion borrowing limit is raised. President Biden has balked at Republican demands for spending cuts and other policy changes in exchange for raising the borrowing limit.

U.S. intelligence analysts expect China to use information operations, disinformation, and financial and other moves to exploit the Washington stalemate, Ms. Haines told the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

There is no definitive intelligence, she said, “but I think our analysts would agree … that it would be almost a certainty that they would look to take advantage of the opportunity, and they generally, both Russia and China, would look to sort of narrate through information operations such an event as demonstrating the chaos within the United States, that we’re not capable of functioning as a democracy, and sort of the governance issues associated with it,” she said.

“They’ve done that on a range of things,” she said.

The DNI, the policy coordinator for the federal government’s main intelligence services, has created a Foreign Malign Influence Center to gather intelligence on disinformation threats and assist U.S. law enforcement and the State Department, which runs the Global Engagement Center, Ms. Haines said.

The new DNI office will soon make public a third U.S. intelligence report on foreign influence and interference in U.S. elections.

Ms. Haines said U.S. intelligence agencies recently assessed adversary efforts to undermine candidates for U.S. office. The findings are being shared with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, she said.

The foreign influence center “deals with disinformation more generally, and what we have been doing is effectively trying to support the [State Department’s] Global Engagement Center and others throughout the U.S. government in helping them to understand what are the plans and intentions of the key actors in this space — China, Russia, Iran, etc.,” Ms. Haines said.

The foreign influence center also identifies techniques for disinformation and influence operations. The information is shared with the FBI, the Justice Department, the Global Engagement Center and Homeland Security Department officials.

Ms. Haines said China and Russia are also expected to target U.S. debate over the fate of a 2008 electronic surveillance law set to expire in December. Defenders say the statute, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, is a key tool for monitoring foreign spying and terrorist activities.

Some civil liberties groups and advocates in Congress say the law is overly broad and allows Americans’ electronic messages to be swept up in U.S. electronic spy operations. Some conservatives say the FBI abused the surveillance law while seeking authorization to track Carter Page, an adviser to presidential candidate Donald Trump in 2016, during its investigation of suspected collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

Ms. Haines said China’s influence operations involve global supply chain dependencies and threats to cut them off during a crisis.

The Chinese Communist Party “is also seeking to reshape global governance in line with [Chinese President Xi Jinping’s] preferences and governance standards that support the monopoly of power within China, and expanding influence operations, including through the export of digital repression technologies,” she said.

The annual threat assessment said Beijing continues to expand its global intelligence and covert influence operations to support the ruling Communist Party’s economic and security goals.

Mr. Xi has declared that China will eventually become the world’s leading superpower, and Beijing views the United States as the main impediment to that goal.

“China is attempting to sow doubts about U.S. leadership, undermine democracy, and extend Beijing’s influence, particularly in East Asia and the western Pacific, which Beijing views as its sphere of influence,” the threat assessment states.

“Beijing largely concentrates its U.S.-focused influence efforts on shaping U.S. policy and the U.S. public’s perception of China in a positive direction, but has shown a willingness to meddle in select election races that involved perceived anti-China politicians.”

According to the report, Chinese leaders believe the emerging U.S. bipartisan consensus against China is impeding Beijing’s efforts to directly influence U.S. policy. In response, Chinese officials are reportedly redoubling efforts to influence state and local governments in the United States to support Chinese interests.

State and local officials are seen as “more pliable” than their federal government counterparts on China policy, the report said.

“PRC actors have become more aggressive with their influence campaigns, probably motivated by their view that anti-China sentiment in the United States is threatening their international image, access to markets, and technological expertise,” the report said, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.

Key targets of the Chinese influence campaigns are attempting to soften U.S. support for Taiwan and limit criticism of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, which the State Department identified in 2021 as an ongoing genocide against minority Uyghurs and others in China.

The CCP is also working covertly to influence Americans’ views of the Chinese crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong and the repression of Buddhists in Tibet.

Beijing also is working among Chinese student associations to stifle criticism of China on U.S. campuses, academic institutions and think tanks, the report said.

“These activities have included pressuring family members in China, denying or canceling visas, blocking access to China’s archives and resources, and disrupting or withdrawing funding for exchange programs,” the report said.

In the future, China is expected to leverage artificial intelligence applied to advanced technology and “big data” analytics for its influence and disinformation operations, the report said.

The DNI disclosures on Chinese influence operations follow a recent report by Martin Purbrick, a former Hong Kong police intelligence officer, who said sophisticated Chinese influence operations were targeting the United States and were working through a Communist Party organ called the United Front Work Department.

Army Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that China has been promoting anti-U.S. propaganda for years in Central and South America.

“I believe that we should be doing everything that we can to talk to our partners and allies down in Central and South America about the value that the United States brings,” Gen. Berrier said.

The DNI threat assessment said Moscow also is aggressively attempting to divide Western alliances and sow divisions within the United States, such as China’s use of news of the day to promote its narrative.

“Russia and its influence actors are adept at capitalizing on current events in the United States to push Moscow-friendly positions to Western audiences,” the report said.

“Russian officials, including [President Vladimir] Putin himself, and influence actors routinely inject themselves into contentious U.S. issues, even if that causes the Kremlin to take a public stand on U.S. domestic political matters.”

Russian influence operations also seek to strengthen ties to U.S. media and political figures to develop “vectors” for future operations.