China Targeted Federal Reserve to Build Informant Network and Access Data for over a decade, Probe Finds

That is a bit of unusual news! Besides buying farm land across the United States with sometimes national security sensitive installations/facilities nearby, this is apparently another avenue for Chinese espionage.

"China tried to build a network of informants inside the Federal Reserve system, at one point threatening to imprison a Fed economist during a trip to Shanghai unless he agreed to provide nonpublic economic data, a congressional investigation found.

The investigation by Republican staff members of the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs found that Fed employees were offered contracts with Chinese talent-recruitment programs, which often include cash payments, and asked to provide information on the U.S. economy, interest-rate changes and policies, according to a report of the findings released Tuesday.

In the case of the economist, the report said, Chinese officials in 2019 detained and tried to coerce him to share data and information on U.S. government policies, including on tariffs while the U.S. and China were in the midst of a trade war.

The report doesn’t say whether any sensitive information was compromised in what it said has been a decade long effort that began around 2013. Access to such information could provide valuable insights given the Fed’s extensive analysis of U.S. economic activity, its oversight of the U.S. financial system, and the setting of interest-rate policy. ..."

China Targeted Fed to Build Informant Network and Access Data, Probe Finds - WSJ The investigation by Senate Republicans found that the decade long effort included detaining a Fed economist in China