FBI Forges Unprecedented Law Enforcement Ties with China and Russia Under Director Patel

FBI Director Kash Patel told Reuters in an exclusive interview that the bureau has built new law enforcement partnerships with China and Russia over the past 15 months, covering four working groups: cyber fraud, violent crimes against children, counternarcotics, and fugitive recovery 12. The cooperation has included personnel exchanges, joint raids, and shared intelligence, with Chinese Ministry of Public Security officers visiting FBI facilities monthly and FBI agents traveling to China, most recently for a Patel trip to Beijing in late July; a reciprocal trip to Russia is tentatively planned for October 13. Patel cited Operation Sand Dollar, a May raid with China's MPS and Dubai police that produced 300 arrests, $300 million seized, thousands of trafficked workers freed, and at least one suspect repatriated to the U.S., and an internal FBI memo crediting China's cooperation with nine arrests, two shuttered chemical plants, three associated websites closed, and a June child sexual abuse network takedown in Omaha involving 16 suspects 1. Patel said the arrangements do not replace the Five Eyes alliance and that visiting foreign officials are subject to counterintelligence surveillance 1, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio separately called Chinese cooperation on fentanyl precursors "a work in progress" and former FBI supervisory agent Jeff Crocker warned China and Russia "are our enemies, period" and are "actively trying to harm our country" 1.