(PatrioticPost.com)- The conclusions of new research that shed light on China’s possible threat to the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States were issued on Tuesday by Senator Rob Portman, the Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
The investigation uncovered China’s continuous effort to target, influence, and undermine the Fed, as well as the Fed’s “failure” to address such threats successfully.
It has been demonstrated that China used various strategies to attract U.S.-based economists to provide China with expertise and intellectual capital in exchange for monetary gain and other perks.
The Federal Reserve launched an internal investigation in 2015, which brought attention to the P-Network. This network consisted of thirteen individuals working at eight regional Fed banks, and their behavior was found to be “alarming.”
It was discovered that these people had connections to the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), the Chinese Thousand Talents Program, or Chinese media outlets.
During one visit to China, a “high official” with the Federal Reserve who had these connections was taken into custody against their will and threatened with physical harm if they did not supply economic intelligence and help.
It was discovered that two additional workers had communicated with a former colleague connected to the aforementioned talent recruitment program and sent “modeling code” to a Chinese university with ties to the PBoC. Additionally, these two workers had sent “modeling code” to the PBoC.
According to the assessment, the Federal Reserve does not currently possess the capabilities necessary to combat China’s malign influence and collection operations effectively. Instead, the research recommends that the Fed collaborate more closely with the FBI.
Reuters states that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell wrote a letter to Senator Rob Portman in which he reacted to the claims made in the report.
Powell stated in his letter that he had strong concerns about assertions and implications in the report. He argued that the Federal Reserve conducts extensive background checks on all employees and has a comprehensive network set up to prevent security breaches.
Powell went on to say that he and his fellow employees were “extremely concerned” by “what [they] consider to be the report’s harsh, unfounded, and unproven insinuations against certain individual staff members.”
