The Wall Street Journal recently quoted U.S. officials as saying that the intelligence budget for China will increase by nearly 20% in fiscal year 2021 (October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021).
While the exact amount is classified, officials say that spending on China is increasing out of an annual intelligence budget of about $85 billion to gather information from China, analyze current operations, and predict future directions, according to the paper. A statement issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) said, “We are reallocating resources in the FY 2021 budget to increase spending involving China by nearly 20 percent.”
In an interview, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe noted that this shift involves “money and manpower” and suggested that some intelligence agency analysts focused on counterterrorism will refocus on China. He said, “When the evidence is so clear, and it’s becoming clearer, that China and China alone can compete with us in all spaces, when we’ve looked at all the different threat streams …… resources need to shift.” Ratcliffe also wrote in an op-ed published Thursday in the newspaper that “China poses the greatest threat to the United States today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom around the world since World War II.”
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