US sees China as top intelligence threat: report

WASHINGTON: China's intelligence services are the most active in the world in spying on the United States and are aggressively targeting advanced technology, a senior US intelligence official said in remarks published on Tuesday.

Joel Brenner, the new head of the Office of National Counterintelligence Executive, told the Washington Times that the intelligence services of Cuba, Russia and Iran are next in line.

"These services are eating our lunch," Brenner was quoted as saying.

Chinese intelligence is conducting a "very aggressive" campaign to acquire advanced US technology, often acquiring it before it is fully developed, Brenner said.

"The technology bleed to China, among others, is a very serious problem," he was quoted as saying, adding that the FBI is improving its efforts to identify and protect sensitive technology.

Brenner's office, known as the NCIX, is currently conducting a damage assessment of the case of Katrina Leung, a Los Angeles businesswoman and FBI informant who the government alleged in 2003 was a spy for Beijing.

Espionage charges against Leung were later dropped and she pleaded guilty to lesser charges in 2005.

But Brenner said Leung, who had a sexual relationship with two senior FBI counterintelligence agents, James J Smith and Bill Cleveland, was being run as an agent by Chinese intelligence.