China 'as big a threat to US' as Russia: CIA

MOSCOW, Jan 30 (BBC): Chinese efforts to exert covert influence over the West are just as concerning as Russian subversion, the director of the CIA has said.

Mike Pompeo told the BBC that the Chinese "have a much bigger footprint" to do this than the Russians do.

As examples he cited efforts to steal US commercial information and infiltration of schools and hospitals - and this extended to Europe and the UK.

Mr Pompeo was a hardline Republican congressman before becoming CIA chief. Earlier this year, a former CIA officer was arrested on charges of retaining classified information in a case thought to be connected to the dismantling of the agency's spy operations in China.

In the two years before Jerry Chun Shing Lee's arrest, some 20 informants had been killed or jailed - one of the most disastrous failures of US intelligence in recent years.

But officials did not know at the time whether to blame a mole or data hack.

The US spy chief told the BBC that countries could collectively do more to combat Chinese efforts to exert power over the West.

"We can watch very focused efforts to steal American information, to infiltrate the United States with spies - with people who are going to work on behalf of the Chinese government against America," he said.

"We see it in our schools. We see it in our hospitals and medicals systems. We see it throughout corporate America. It's also true in other parts of the world... including Europe and the UK." Russian interference has been the focus of political debate in Washington with allegations of hacking and releasing information as well as using social media to sow division.

A Reuters report adds: CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Russia will target US mid-term elections later this year as part of the Kremlin's attempt to influence domestic politics across the West, and warned the world had to do more to push back against Chinese meddling.

Russia has been accused of meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the allegations, which Moscow denies, and whether there was any collusion involving President Donald Trump's associates.

An AFP report add: The US Treasury has released a long awaited list of Russian officials and business leaders eligible for sanctions under a law designed to punish Moscow for its alleged meddling in the election that brought Donald Trump to power.

The list published shortly before midnight Monday features the names of most of the senior members in President Vladimir Putin's administration-114 politicians altogether-and 96 business people the US considers 'oligarchs' close to Putin and worth at least $1 billion each.