WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee said on Tuesday he expects a revival of a Justice Department program aimed at combating Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft.
Speaking to conservative think tank Hudson (NYSE:) Institute, Representative Mark Green highlighted Chinese infiltration and espionage threats targeting critical US infrastructure, from port cranes to power plants.
He stressed the need for a national strategy to counter cyber threats and take the offensive against China.
“We are in conflict with China on multiple levels, and too many people are asleep at the wheel,” he said.
With President-elect Donald Trump set to return to power on January 20, Green was asked whether he expected the revival of the China Initiative during Trump’s first presidency, which critics say involved racial profiling and created a culture of fear that scientific research cooled down. .
“Yeah, I think you’ll see,” he said.
In ending the program in 2022, the Biden administration said it did so with the realization that the focus on China was too narrow and that it was necessary to address threats from a broader range of hostile countries.
U.S. agencies and Congress have nevertheless stepped up scrutiny of China’s state-sponsored influence and technology transfers at American colleges and universities, amid concerns that Beijing is using open and federally funded research environments in the U.S. to circumvent export controls and other national security laws.