Wray has stated that half of the FBI’s 5,000 active counterintelligence cases involve China, while the Bureau opens a new one every 10 hours, on average – yet this dire reality has made little impression on our politics to date. It’s not difficult to assess why. Our “Big Five” counterintelligence threats are, in order of magnitude, China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, and Israel (the last is discussed in hushed tones even inside SCIFs, given its political sensitivities). Counterintelligence broadly lacks any political constituency in Washington, DC, while the Democrat obsession with Russian espionage and election interference, at least regarding Republicans particularly former President Donald Trump, which appeared suddenly in 2016, has tarred the vital issue of countering hostile espionage with partisan fanaticism and sheer quackery.

Above all, Democrats don’t want to discuss our enormous Chinese espionage problem because so many Democrats, including top elected officials, are mixed up in it.