The heads of the security and intelligence services of the United States of America and Great Britain have warned of a major espionage threat coming from China.

During a joint conference in London, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Christopher Wray, said that the Chinese regime is the "biggest security threat", which had also interfered in politics.

And the head of British counter-intelligence (MI5), Ken McCallum, said that the agency he leads has doubled the work against Chinese activities in the last three years, to intensify even more.

"MI5 is now conducting seven times more investigations into the activities of the Chinese Communist Party compared to 2018," McCallum said.

The FBI's Wray warned that if China were to forcibly occupy Taiwan, it would "represent one of the most appalling restrictions on commercial activity the world has ever seen."

He also warned the audience - which included business chief executives and senior figures from universities - that the Chinese government is "determined to steal technology", using a variety of means.

Wray cited cases in which people associated with Chinese companies in rural America had harvested genetically modified seeds that would have cost them billions of dollars and nearly a decade to develop.

He also said that China has deployed cyber espionage to "deceive and steal on a massive scale" through a major hacking program.

Meanwhile, the head of MI5 emphasized that intelligence services about cyber threats were shared with 37 countries and that in May a sophisticated threat against airspace was prevented.

McCallum also pointed to a series of examples related to China.

This included a British aviation expert who had gained access to the Internet and been offered an attractive job opportunity.

He traveled to China twice to "win and dine" before being asked for technical information on military aircraft by a company that was actually a front for Chinese intelligence officers.

"That's where we stepped in," McCallum said.

It also revealed that an engineering firm had been approached by a Chinese company, which led to its technology being acquired before the deal was subsequently scrapped, forcing Smith's Harlow into administration in 2020.

McCallum pointed to the whistleblower alert issued by Parliament about Christine Lee's activities.

He said these types of operations were aimed at amplifying voices and silencing those who questioned the authority of the Communist Party.

"This must be challenged," said the head of MI5.

In the US, the director of the FBI said that the Chinese government had directly interfered in the New York congressional elections held this year because they did not want a candidate who was a critic and a former Tiananmen Square protester to be elected.

They had done so, he said, by hiring a private investigator to uncover disparaging information.

When they couldn't find anything, he said there had been an attempt to create a controversy by using a sex worker before suggesting a car crash be staged.

Wray said China was learning "all kinds of lessons" from the conflict in Ukraine.

This included trying to insulate itself from any future sanctions of the kind that have hit Russia.

"If China were to invade Taiwan, the economic disruption would be far greater than seen this year, with Western investment in China held hostage and supply chains disrupted," Wray said.

"I have no reason to think that their interest in Taiwan has diminished in any way," the FBI director told reporters after the speech.

The MI5 chief said the new legislation would help tackle the threat, but the UK also needed to become a "tougher target" by ensuring all parts of society were more aware of the dangers.

In the end, he said that the reform of the visa system had affected more than 50 students linked to the Chinese military, to leave the UK.

"China has counted for a very long time on the UK being the second priority of all.

They are no longer flying under the radar," he concluded.

/Telegraph/