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The US and China have clashed repeatedly in recent months, over trade, coronavirus and Hong Kong

Chinese agents have stepped up their efforts to influence President-elect

Joe Biden's incoming administration, a US intelligence official has said.

William Evanina, from the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence,

said the Chinese were also focusing on people close to Mr Biden's team.

Mr Evanina said it was an influence campaign "on steroids".

Separately, a justice department official said more than 1,000 suspected

Chinese agents had fled the US.

In Wednesday's virtual discussion at the Aspen Institute think tank, Mr

Evanina, chief of the Director of National Intelligence's counter-intelligence
branch, said China had been attempting to meddle in the US efforts to
develop a coronavirus vaccine and recent American elections.

He continued: "We've also seen an uptick, which was planned and we

predicted, that China would now re-vector their influence campaigns to the Features
new [Biden] administration.

"And when I say that, that malign foreign influence, that diplomatic influence
plus, or on steroids, we're starting to see that play across the country to not
only the folks starting in the new administration, but those who are around
those folks in the new administration.

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President Donald Trump accused President Xi Jinping's China of unleashing coronavirus on the United States

"So that's one area we're going to be very keen on making sure the new
administration understands that influence, what it looks like, what it tastes
like, what it feels like when you see it." It's rare to find art that blows you
away. This does ★★★★★
Both Mr Biden and President Donald Trump traded bitter accusations during
the recent White House campaign of being influenced by Beijing.

Mr Trump focused on business dealings by his rival's son Hunter Biden in

China, while the Democratic candidate highlighted Mr Trump's Chinese bank
account.

What was Hunter Biden doing in Ukraine and China?

During the same think tank discussion on Wednesday, John Demers, chief of
the justice department's national security division, said hundreds of Chinese
researchers with ties to their country's military had been identified by FBI Will a vaccine give us our old lives
investigators over the summer. back?

Mr Demers said the inquiry began when US authorities arrested five or six
Chinese researchers who had hidden their affiliation with the People's
Liberation Army (PLA).

‘Neither the US nor China wants us’

"Those five or six arrests were just the tip of the iceberg and honestly the size
of the iceberg was one that I don't know that we or other folks realised how
large it was," he said.

He told the discussion that aer the FBI conducted dozens of interviews with
How many trade deals has the UK
other individuals, "more than 1,000 PLA-affiliated Chinese researchers le the
done so far?
country".

Mr Demers said "only the Chinese have the resources and ability and will" to
conduct such alleged political and economic espionage and "other malign
activity".

He told the discussion these researchers were in addition to a group to 1,000

Chinese students and researchers whose visas were revoked by the US back in
September.

US revokes visas for 1,000 Chinese students ICYMI: Covid street fight and near
cat catastrophe
US orders China to close Houston consulate

The US state department said back then it would only welcome Chinese
students "who do not further the Chinese Communist Party's goals of military
dominance".

In July, the state department also closed China's consulate in Houston, Texas,
accusing Beijing of stealing intellectual property.

Beijing hit back by accusing the US of racial discrimination, but Mr Demers

denied on Wednesday that the American authorities were racially profiling
Chinese students. How are students travelling home
for Christmas?
Sino-US relations have hit rock bottom aer outgoing President Trump's
disputes with Beijing over issues ranging from trade to Hong Kong to the
pandemic.

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