Posted on 05/23/2025 9:21:46 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis says that China represents an “existential threat” to the United States and that the agency’s top priority is outpacing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in a high-stakes technological arms race that spans semiconductors, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence.
“China is the existential threat to American security in a way we really have never confronted before,” Ellis told Axios in an interview published on May 21, adding that a key CIA objective is to help U.S. companies maintain a “decisive technological advantage” to counter the CCP’s malign actions against the homeland.
In separate remarks, including an interview at the beginning of May with investor Anthony Pompliano, Ellis emphasized that President Donald Trump’s intelligence team is laser-focused on denying China any strategic edge, especially in advanced technologies that underpin both the economy and national defense.
However, fields such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing are not areas that the U.S. intelligence community (IC) has traditionally been much involved in—and the CIA is looking to change that.
“The IC is very good at ... counting Soviet tanks ... to be ready for a possible conflict in Europe in the Cold War,” Ellis said.
“But ... when you ask the IC to look at issues ... where Chinese companies are in artificial intelligence research, it’s not one that we’ve been well-positioned historically to think about.”
As part of its shift in focus toward the tech race against adversaries such as China, the CIA is looking to develop more resources, including personnel, Ellis said, adding that this includes recruiting people with expertise in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
“We need more people with science and technology backgrounds, which is again a little different than the global war on terrorism mindset of the last 20 years,” he said, adding that the CIA is also increasingly looking at partnering with private-sector leaders—including recent consultations with Elon Musk—on how to cut waste, adopt artificial intelligence tools, and stay ahead of adversaries using emerging technologies like drone swarms.
The deputy director’s remarks echo a sharply-worded warning from former FBI Director Christopher Wray, who, before his resignation, called the Chinese regime “the defining threat of our generation” after revealing that hackers linked to the CCP had infiltrated U.S. critical infrastructure and were waiting for the right moment to strike a “devastating blow.”
Ellis’s concerns are also reinforced by the intelligence community’s latest threat assessment, which identifies China as “the most active and persistent cyber threat” facing the United States—particularly when it comes to government systems, critical infrastructure, and the private sector.
Beijing’s cyber campaign includes operations such as Volt Typhoon, a state-backed effort to infiltrate key U.S. systems and maintain covert, long-term access to vital infrastructure. A more recent campaign, known as Salt Typhoon, has targeted U.S. telecommunications networks, underscoring the regime’s expanding digital reach and operational sophistication in targeting critical infrastructure in America.
The report warns that in the event of a looming military conflict with Washington, especially over Taiwan, China could launch aggressive cyber strikes against U.S. military and civilian networks. These would be intended to disrupt command decisions, generate chaos among the public, and hinder the rapid deployment of American forces.
DECADES overdue!
Nixon deserved impeachment far more because of his China appeasement than for Watergate.
That still popular, somewhat overused term:
“Existential Threat” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
It probably works better in print vs hearing someone actually use the term in heard speech.
A “Never Ending” threat also works. Phonetically easier on the ears.
Good, so when can we expect the revocation all of enemy agents visas and green cards ?
And here I thought Trump and we Trump supporters were the existential threats
Yeah, because the CIA/FBI have been so good at stopping those radicalized online while suppressing US citizens’ free speech rights.
The problem is the CIA has so destroyed trust in the institution, that I don’t know if this is a true threat or a yet another political gaslighting.
Let me guess : this means the government has to spend millions of more dollars that we can’t afford
They are not saying that part out loud.
Bkmk
You can't train a blue haired lesbian studies grad to know what she/he/it is looking at with a Fluoroscope.
China likely has enough spies in research departments across the US to gather all the info needed to counter what ever the CIA is doing.
The CIA is a threat to everyone these days...
Both China & India should be considered enemy agents.
If you’re winning a tech war, while issuing student & work visas to Chinese & Indians out the wazoo, you’ll lose the war.
Someone needs to explain to the CIA all that matters is price.
This country has destroyed US citizen careers in engineering, by importing cheap engineering labor out the wazoo.
I don’t blame our kids for seeking careers in Law & Business.
Nope.
Go work for Nvidia, SpaceX, AMD etc. who are always looking for great engineers.
Going to be a hard battle everything we invent the data gets sold to them umm hacked that’s the first problem that needs to be addressed.
only took them 30 years to figure it out.
embarrassing.
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