Adversary Intelligence — 2026-09-13

China Warns US to Stop All Spying After CIA Deputy Director Declares Chinese Firms Legitimate Intelligence Targets

BLUFBeijing's demand to halt espionage is rhetorical posturing ahead of Xi's planned US visit, and concrete countermeasures against named US targets before that visit concludes remain very unlikely.

China's Ministry of Commerce on Friday demanded the US "immediately cease all espionage activities against China," including against Chinese enterprises, and warned it possesses "the firm will and ample means" to punish such acts under laws including the Counter-Espionage Law 1. The statement responded to CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis, who said in a public speech Tuesday that the US is expanding intelligence work on China and that Chinese firms in AI, semiconductors and biotechnology are "legitimate targets" for espionage 12. The ministry called the US claims "gangster logic of hegemony," according to SCMP's rendering 2, or "bandit logic of hegemony," per Xinhua's translation 1, and characterized economic competition as normal commercial activity dependent on technology, talent and innovation 2. The exchange precedes a planned Xi visit to the US in coming weeks 2.

Analysis
Beijing's Counter-Espionage Law invocation converts Ellis's remarks into an explicit legal warning rather than an operational pivot, and China is very unlikely to impose a concrete countermeasure, such as a sanction, asset freeze, or exit ban, against a named US individual or entity before Xi's planned US visit concludes, since Beijing has strong incentive to preserve the summit's atmospherics. We hold high confidence in this judgment given China's consistent pattern of channeling such disputes into statements rather than enforcement actions ahead of high-level exchanges, though sourcing rests entirely on secondary accounts of a single ministry release, with SCMP and People's Daily Online converging on identical language without independent corroboration. The statement marks a shift from silence to named rebuttal, but may function primarily as domestic-facing, pre-summit positioning. Absent a concrete countermeasure, US agencies can hold current travel-security guidance and personnel-exposure posture unchanged through the visit.

2 sources

China slams U.S. espionage against Chinese enterprises - People's Daily Online
China urges US to stop all spying or face retaliation, slams gangster logic - South China Morning Post