US lawmakers slam Biden administration's decision to shut Chinese espionage initiative

A number of US lawmakers have slammed the Biden administration's decision to close the Trump-era China Initiative, which had aimed to combat the national security threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party.

The Biden administration made a dangerous mistake in dropping the China Initiative, according to Republican Representative Mike Gallagher.

"The Chinese Communist Party is devoted to stealing American innovation and turning it against us in support of its malign ambitions. This relentless campaign, which includes but is not limited to traditional espionage, continues whether or not we choose to counter it," the Wisconsin congressman told the Washington Examiner.

"By ending the China Initiative, the Biden administration is sending a terrible signal about the U.S. government's commitment to countering this activity. I will be pressing the administration for answers in the coming weeks about how it plans to replace these critical efforts."

This reaction comes after the three-year-old effort, known as the China Initiative, was shut down due to perceptions that it unfairly painted Chinese Americans as disloyal.

"By grouping cases under the China Initiative rubric, we helped give rise to a harmful perception that the department applies a lower standard to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct related to that country or that we in some way view people with racial, ethnic or familial ties to China differently," Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen said in remarks at George Mason University in Virginia, as quoted by Politico magazine.

According to Olsen, the decision amounted to reframing and recalibration -- not an abandonment -- of a muscular law enforcement response to the national security threat posed by China.

"Department of Justice (DOJ) will no longer use the framework of the China Initiative to organize or to describe our efforts to counter threats by the PRC government," Olsen told reporters last week.

Justice's top national security official said department officials had concluded that the enforcement program singling out China was ill-advised and better reframed as part of a more wide-ranging effort to counter threats posed by Russia, Iran and other countries.

Established in November 2018, the Initiative identified a number of goals for the Department, ranging from an increased focus on the investigation and prosecution of trade secret theft and economic espionage, to better-countering threats posed by Chinese foreign investment and supply chain vulnerabilities.

( With inputs from ANI )