CLOAK AND DAGGER

China Waged 10-Year Campaign Against the Fed and Preyed on Employees, Senate Report Says

Employees were reportedly threatened as Chinese officials sought to obtain secret information.

Chinese officials spent 10 years trying to undermine the U.S. Federal Reserve by targeting employees, according to a Senate report released Tuesday. The report, led by Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), found that China preyed on employees who were open to collaborate academically, at times using threats to try and extract secret policy information from them. The report alleges that Chinese officials also used job offers at Chinese universities in a bid to obtain information. In one instance, Chinese officials detained a Fed employee in Shanghai multiple times and threatened his family, the report claims. As The Washington Post reported, Fed Chair Jerome Powell took issue with the report's claim that enough wasn't done to combat the Chinese campaign. In a letter to Portman, Powell said he has “strong concerns about assertions and implications” in the report and that the Fed’s policies and technologies are regularly updated to defend against such efforts.