Christopher Wray, Director of the FBI, said Tuesday that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is conducting a program known as “Operation Fox Hunt” that is designed to threaten and blackmail Chinese dissidents living abroad, including in the United States, to return to Mainland China to be imprisoned. Wray said that Chinese agents are being given a choice: Return to China, or commit suicide.
Operation Fox Hunt was launched in 2014 by Secretary General of the CCP and President of China Xi Jinping, ostensibly as a way of tracking down and catching corrupt Chinese politicians and “economic fugitives” such as business executives hiding overseas. Wray, who spoke at an event hosted by the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, said that Fox Hunt is actually a program designed to target Chinese nationals and people of Chinese ancestry living abroad whom the Chinese government sees as a threat to the stability of the regime.
“We're talking about political rivals, dissidents and critics seeking to expose China's extensive human rights violations,” said Wray. “Hundreds of the Fox Hunt victims that they target live right here in the United States, and many are American citizens or green card holders.”
“The Chinese government wants to force them to return to China, and China's tactics to accomplish that are shocking.”
In one instance, Wray recalled how, when Fox Hunt couldn't find the location of one dissident, they sent an emissary of the Chinese government to visit the person's family, living in the United States, to tell the dissident that they can either return to China or commit suicide.
When Fox Hunt's targets refuse to return to China, the CCP threatens their families, both living abroad and in China. Wray notes that family members living in China have even been arrested for leverage.
One of the most high-profile “successes” of Operation Fox Hunt was the capture of ex-Interpol chief Meng Hongwei, the first Chinese national to be appointed to the prestigious position. Insider reports state that Xi became furious with Meng over his inability to pursue and capture Dolkun Isa, a Uyghur activist who has spoken out about China's oppression of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Meng was charged back in January with 13 years in prison over flimsy bribery charges.
Many other dissidents are constantly being intimidated by Chinese agents using veiled threats against them and their families. When Wray was asked about other possible tactics the CCP uses against its critics, he merely responded with “Use your imagination. You're not going to be far off.” Some of these intimidation tactics may be working; it may be enough of a success for China if the dissidents no longer speak out about China's crimes against humanity.
Listen to this episode of the Health Ranger Store, a podcast by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, as he talks about how America has turned into a failed state, where its citizens can't even depend on government services to protect their lives and property from the nation's enemies.
Operation Fox Hunt a threat to American security
Wray said that, because of Fox Hunt and other Chinese espionage programs, the FBI has been working nonstop with the bureau's partners to foil Chinese efforts to intimidate dissidents and critics of Xi's regime. (Related: Trump administration declares it will no longer treat China with kid gloves as “days of American passivity are over.”)
Also during his speech, Wray detailed all of the ways China is a threat to the future stability of America, and how China is the “greatest long-term threat” to America's intellectual property and “economic vitality.”
Wray said that nearly half of the FBI's 5,000 active counterintelligence cases were dealing with matters related to China, and that the FBI was opening a new China-related counterintelligence case every 10 hours.
The FBI director refused to acknowledge whether any Chinese operatives in the United States have been arrested in connection to Operation Fox Hunt or in any one of the thousands of counterintelligence cases.
Furthermore, the FBI director said that China was trying to use its power to influence the 2020 presidential election. However, he refused to say whether China was backing President Donald Trump or his presumptive Democratic rival, former vice president Joe Biden.
Instead, Wray said that China's campaign targets America's policies and positions all the time, and that the threat posed by the CCP is “not an election-specific threat; it's really more of an all-year, all-the-time threat.”
Wray also said that any Chinese nationals or Americans of Chinese descent who believe themselves to be a target of Operation Fox Hunt to “please reach out to your local FBI field office.”
The FBI director concluded his speech by saying that the solution is not to shutter America's extensive ties with China, but rather that the United States should adopt a zero-tolerance policy for espionage and other criminal activities.
“Confronting this threat effectively does not mean we shouldn't do business with the Chinese,” he said. “It does not mean we shouldn't host Chinese visitors. It does not mean we shouldn't welcome Chinese students or coexist with China on the world stage. But it does mean that when China violates our criminal laws and international norms, we are not going to tolerate it, much less enable it.”
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