Key Technologies

 "WASHINGTON -- The U.S.'s top counterintelligence official said he is narrowing his team's focus to safeguarding five key technologies, including semiconductors and biotechnology, seeing their protection from rivals as determining whether America remains the world's leading superpower.

The National Counterintelligence and Security Center's acting director, Michael Orlando, said Thursday he is sharpening the center's priorities in order to educate businesses and academia about the expansive efforts by China and Russia to collect cutting-edge research.

The five technologies identified by Mr. Orlando include artificial intelligence, quantum computing and autonomous systems such as undersea drones and robots that can perform surgeries. The sectors are often depicted by scientists and researchers as future drivers of economic growth and military dominance.

Mr. Orlando, who took up the post in January after serving as deputy director, said at a media briefing that losing leadership in these fields could lead to the U.S.'s being eclipsed as the world superpower.

The narrower focus appears to mark an adjustment, rather than a departure, from a full-scale counterintelligence drive begun under the Trump administration to stop the theft and transfer of U.S. technology, research and other proprietary information to China.

The initiative saw counterintelligence officers fan out to universities and businesses, briefing them on a broader set of fields Beijing has identified as areas to dominate, as well as the U.S.-China competition over next-generation wireless technology known as 5G. Civil liberties and academic groups criticized parts of that effort for creating an environment of suspicion that stigmatized Chinese and other Asians.

Mr. Orlando said he isn't advocating across-the-board decoupling from the Chinese economy and that he recognizes the importance of attracting foreign talent, including students, to the U.S. to compete in these five areas.

He said that it isn't practical for the counterintelligence center to look at such a wide range of fields and that the threat of companies like Huawei Technologies Co. dominating 5G has already been highlighted.

As part of its new priorities, the counterintelligence center named Edward You, a career FBI agent and an expert on biological threats, to a new position to focus on emerging and disruptive technologies. Mr. You said Thursday that a goal is to raise awareness that China's efforts to develop the world's largest data set of genetic and other biological information pose a threat beyond individual privacy issues.

While Chinese companies such as BGI Group have continued harvesting global biological data by offering genetic-testing services, China's government has effectively stopped granting access to its own people's data, Mr. You said. "It's a one-way street," he said.

A BGI spokesman accused the U.S. of spreading disinformation and said that the company protects all data in compliance with international standards and local regulations, and that the company isn't linked to the Chinese government.

The new priorities of the counterintelligence center are in line with reports issued last year by a House Armed Services Committee group and the House Intelligence Committee. Those reports urged the Defense Department to rethink national security, including by investing in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and biotechnology, and said intelligence agencies needed to adapt to "a changing geopolitical and technological environment increasingly shaped by a rising China."" [1]

1. U.S. News: Counterintelligence Focus Narrows to Key Technologies
O'Keeffe, Kate.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 23 Oct 2021: A.7.