CIA director nominee vows to increase focus on China and emerging technologies


John Ratcliffe, US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for director of the CIA, pledged on Wednesday that, should he be approved to lead the spy agency, he would intensify its focus on China and emerging technologies.

Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence (DNI) during Trump’s first term, told the Senate Intelligence Committee during his confirmation hearing that the US faced “what may be the most challenging national security environment in our nation’s history” – including threats from China, the Russia-Ukraine war and its risk of nuclear war, Iran and North Korea as well as “increasing coordination among America’s rivals”.

Beijing’s advances in emerging technologies like AI and quantum computing had empowered what he called “ubiquitous technical surveillance” in China, posing “unprecedented challenges” for the Central Intelligence Agency in gathering information.

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Ratcliffe said that the agency had “struggled to keep pace” with technological innovation, and that there was a need for it to expand with the private sector to maintain an edge in emerging technologies.

“As a target, technology is more important than ever, whether it’s understanding our adversaries’ capabilities in AI and quantum computing, or their developments in hypersonics and emerging space technologies, or their innovations in counter-intelligence and surveillance,” he said.

Ratcliffe did not explain how he might improve intelligence collection during nearly two hours of public questioning, before the committee moved the hearing behind closed doors to discuss matters of sensitive or classified intelligence.

Ratcliffe’s questioning was one of a half-dozen confirmation hearings for Trump nominees on Wednesday, along with Senator Marco Rubio for secretary of state; former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi for US attorney general; fracking executive Chris Wright for energy secretary; former US representative Sean Duffy for transportation secretary; and Project 2025 figure Russell Vought for director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Unlike Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for defence secretary, who faced tough questioning during his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Ratcliffe had a fairly smooth session.

He seemed to win over Republican lawmakers because of his experience as DNI in the last months of Trump’s first administration.

And answering Democrats who asked whether his loyalty to Trump would impede his administration of the agency, Ratcliffe touted his “record in terms of speaking truth to power” and said he would resist any efforts to fire employees for their supposed political views.

Chris Wright, energy secretary candidate, during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Photo: AFP

Ratcliffe also said he would continue the “good work” of the current director William Burns, under whose leadership the CIA created two new mission centres in 2021 to formalise the agency’s focus on China and on emerging technology.

However, more needed to be done to counter threats from China and Russia in the great power rivalry, he added.

“This is our once-in-a-generation challenge,” Ratcliffe said. “The intelligence is clear. Our response must be clear as well.”

He also promised to strengthen US deterrence to the cybersecurity threat China posed. Beijing has rejected accusations that it has conducted hacking activities against US telecommunications and other government networks.

“The deterrent effect has to be that there are consequences to our adversaries when they do that,” he said.

He added that he hoped to prioritise resources to develop tools he said would be “necessary to go on offence against our adversaries in the cyber means”.

Ratcliffe, 59, was a US representative from Texas before becoming DNI from May 2020 to January 2021, making him one of the few national security officials to return from Trump’s first administration.

Ratcliffe was not the only nominee on Wednesday to express alarm about Beijing’s role within the US. When Wright, the energy secretary candidate, was asked by Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas about taking steps to prevent Department of Energy national labs and other sensitive facilities from being compromised by adversaries like China, he said he agreed with the “gravity of the threat and the need to address it”.

Cotton said that more than 8,000 Chinese and Russian citizens had been granted access to DOE national labs in the 2023 fiscal year – a fact highlighted in a Senate bill last year that aimed to restrict nationals of China, Russia, and three other countries, from accessing the labs.

The Department of Energy had previously pushed back against the restrictions, arguing that they would have a “significant impact” on its work.

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