China Is ‘Lead Actor’ in Digital Suppression: US Intelligence Chief

‘They have just a vast apparatus that they use,’ Haines says.

Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Avril Haines testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington on March 10, 2022. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

NEW YORK—China leads the world in deploying advanced technology to muffle dissent, according to the top U.S. intelligence official.

“They are, in our view, the lead actor in essentially engaging in digital repression,” Avril Haines, who heads the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said at the annual Concordia Summit in New York on Sept. 19, in what marks the latest warning from the U.S. intelligence sector about threats from China.