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AG Barr: ‘The Chinese Are Engaged In A Full-Court Blitzkrieg’ Against The U.S.

   DailyWire.com
William Barr, U.S. attorney general, attends the 38th annual National Peace Officers Memorial Day service at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, May 15, 2019. Trump is poised to delay a decision by up to six months to impose auto tariffs to avoid blowing up negotiations with the EU and Japan and further antagonizing allies as he ramps up his trade war with China, according to people close to the discussions.
Kevin Dietsch/Pool via Bloomberg

Attorney General William Barr told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on Wednesday night that the Chinese government is engaged in a “full-court blitzkrieg” against the United States.

“This virus originated in China, we still don’t have all the data, we still don’t really know about Patient Zero in China,” Ingraham said. “A lot of that data is being withheld still from the United States, and top medical people are saying that. What about the Justice Department getting involved more, I guess obviously, to the American people in this battle against the ongoing propaganda machine of China in the United States at our universities, in businesses – hey, in the White House Press Room the other day.”

“Yes. The Department is heavily engaged in that, in fact that’s one of our highest priorities in the counter intelligence realm, counter espionage realm, and protection of trade secrets as our activity’s directed to defend against the Chinese,” Barr responded. “The Chinese are engaged in a full-court blitzkrieg of stealing American technology, trying to influence our political system, trying to steal secrets at our research universities and so forth. And we are focused on it. We have something we call the China Initiative. We’ve brought a lot of indictments, but it’s something that we also have to expose by letting the business community understand exactly the nature of the threat.”

“Given what you know today about the panoply of abuses internationally against the United States, who’s the bigger threat to America’s election security – Russia, or China?” Ingraham asked.

“In my opinion it’s China,” Barr responded. “And not just to the election process, but I think across the board there’s simply no comparison. China is a very serious threat to the United States geopolitically, economically, militarily, and a threat to the integrity of our institutions given their ability to influence things.”

WATCH:

PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Will you be recommending going forward any type of changes to protocols at our borders, our ports of entry? There’s obviously a lot of legal implications there. Health screenings of people coming into the country? Again, given the deprivation of Americans’ liberties due to a virus that came – without getting into the details – but it came from a foreign entity namely here China?

BILL BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Absolutely. And I think as horrible as this is and as tragic as it is, there are a couple of good things that could flow from this experience. And one is to, again – once again, appreciate the importance of borders and controlling who is coming into the country. I felt for a long time, as much as people talk about global warming, that the real threat to human beings are microbes and being able to control disease. And that starts with controlling your border. So I think people will be more attuned to more protective measures, but also the supply chain issue. The idea that much of what we need to protect the health of the American people is in the control of foreign governments who can interdict and say, we’re not shipping stuff to the United States. When everyone else in the world wants it during a pandemic, it was a crazy situation to get into. It happened before this administration, and the president’s trying to deal with it.

LAURA: This virus originated in China, we still don’t have all the data, we still don’t really know about Patient Zero in China. A lot of that data is being withheld still from the United States, and top medical people are saying that. What about the Justice Department getting involved more, I guess obviously, to the American people in this battle against the ongoing propaganda machine of China in the United States at our universities, in businesses – hey, in the White House Press Room the other day.

BARR: Yes. The Department is heavily engaged in that, in fact that’s one of our highest priorities in the counter intelligence realm, counter espionage realm, and protection of trade secrets as our activity’s directed to defend against the Chinese. The Chinese are engaged in a full-court blitzkrieg of stealing American technology, trying to influence our political system, trying to steal secrets at our research universities and so forth. And we are focused on it. We have something we call the China Initiative. We’ve brought a lot of indictments, but it’s something that we also have to expose by letting the business community understand exactly the nature of the threat.

LAURA: Given what you know today about the panoply of abuses internationally against the United States, who’s the bigger threat to America’s election security – Russia, or China?

BARR: In my opinion it’s China. And not just to the election process, but I think across the board there’s simply no comparison. China is a very serious threat to the United States geopolitically, economically, militarily, and a threat to the integrity of our institutions given their ability to influence things.

LAURA: And yet our premier academic institutions – Harvard University, our top schools across the country have welcomed Chinese students in to learn, and to take part in research here. We’ve had documented abuses, ongoing federal investigation now – indictments in Boston —

BARR: Yes.

LAURA: — against a Harvard University professor for conspiring with the Chinese, allegedly.

Any thoughts on those ongoing federal grants to institutions where, again, this is an all-out blitzkrieg — why are we allowing all these Chinese researchers in to the United States?

BARR: We have to – well, I think we are trying to tighten up on those programs. And a number of the universities are working closely with the government to understand what the nature of the threat is.

But it’s not just universities – I mean, universities are a part of the problem, but a lot of American business is just for short-term profit, or what they see as a short-term profit. They know over the long-run it’s not going to be long-term benefit to their business. But just for short-term gain they are perhaps not doing what is necessary in the long-term interest of the United States.

 

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