FBI Director Christopher Wray and United Kingdom MI5 Director General Ken McCallum urged business leaders to be aware of the threat from the Chinese government and help the government agencies protect corporate secrets from theft by China.

“By volume, most of what is at risk from Chinese Communist Party aggression is not, so to speak, my stuff. It’s yours,” McCallum said. “The world-leading expertise, technology, research, and commercial advantage developed and held by people in this room, and others like you.”

The Chinese government has a longstanding practice of hacking and stealing proprietary information to try to get an economic advantage.

Wray also spoke about the China threat and emphasized the importance of partnerships to address it. This is the first time the two leaders have gathered to address a global threat with an audience of business and academic leaders. 

“We're not just in the business of articulating problems, we’re doing something about them, together with MI5, with the private sector itself, with other government partners,” Wray said.

Wray encouraged the business leaders to partner with the FBI and MI5 so they can have the appropriate intelligence about this threat. The information can also help companies decide whether partnering with China is worth the risk of having proprietary information stolen. Companies must take the long view in making decisions about China, just as the FBI and MI5 are approaching the threat from a long-term perspective.

“Maintaining a technological edge may do more to increase a company’s value than would partnering with a Chinese company to sell into that huge Chinese market, only to find the Chinese government and your ‘partner’ stealing and copying your innovation,” Wray said.