The US has introduced an initiative to identify possible threats posed by China and develop plans to defend against them, US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said.
Mayorkas on Friday announced the “90-day department-wide sprint” while delivering his first “state of homeland security address” at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations think tank.
The initiative is to “assess how the threats posed by the PRC [People’s Republic of China] will evolve and how we can be best positioned to guard against future manifestations of this threat,” he said.
Photo: Screenshot from a livestream
While listing the security issues the US is confronting, he singled out threats posed by China as among the most serious and related to all of the department’s missions.
“Beijing has the capability and the intent to undermine our interests at home and abroad and is leveraging every instrument of its national power to do so,” he said, citing as examples China’s aggressive provocation in the South China Sea and use of overseas police stations.
A Chinese invasion of Taiwan would put critical infrastructure in the US at risk of disruptive cyberattacks, so “we must ensure we are poised to guard against this threat today and into the future,” Mayorkas said.
The initiative focuses on two areas, he said.
The first is defending critical infrastructure in the US against China or China-sponsored attacks “designed to disrupt or degrade provision of national critical functions, sow discord and panic, and prevent mobilization of US military capabilities,” he said.
The other is to bolster screening and vetting efforts to identify travelers from China who would attempt to “collect intelligence, steal intellectual property and harass dissidents,” he added.
Mayorkas said he would make the initiative an ongoing effort, working with the US Congress, agencies and the private sector.
He said that the US has been intensifying its efforts to counter “adverse nation states,” which he identified as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, as their interests in harming the US are intensifying.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is another potential threat to the US, as malicious actors could use the technology to disrupt fuel supplies, critical care delivery and school systems, he said.
The department is to launch an AI task force to lead the responsible uses of the technology in, for example, screening cargo, identifying the importation of goods produced with forced labor and tackling drug trafficking, he said.
The unit would also defend against malicious uses of AI, he added.
The US has to be positioned to meet the moment as nations such as China and Russia “upend our rules-based international order and threaten our security at home” through cyberattacks, abuse of trade and travel systems, and disinformation campaigns, he said.
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