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.

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.