As September 2020 came to a close, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) released a lightly redacted unclassified executive summary of the “China Deep Dive – A Report on the Intelligence Community’s Capabilities and Competencies with Respect to the People’s Republic of China.”
Key Findings Address Need for Realignment of Resources
The key finding in the bipartisan report is, “the United States’ Intelligence Community has not sufficiently adapted to a changing geopolitical and technological environment increasingly shaped by a rising China and the growing importance of interlocking non-military transnational threats, such as global health, economic security, and climate change. Absent a significant realignment of resources, the U.S. government and intelligence community will fail to achieve the outcomes required to enable continued U.S. competition with China on the global stage for decades to come, and to protect the U.S. health and security.”
The report, according to HPSCI Chairman Adman Schiff (D-CA) is the result of a two-year-long review by the HPSCI. Schiff noted, “The good news is that we still have time to adapt. It is my hope that the Intelligence Community will work hand-in-hand with the congressional oversight committees to make these necessary changes quickly. We should all have the same goal – ensuring the U.S. and its intelligence community is prepared to effectively take on the China challenge.”
Secondary Findings Address Talent Gap in the IC
Among the secondary findings are two which address the dearth of talent among the intelligence community with respect to the People’s Republic of China (China).
- “The IC should formalize and broaden programs designed to mentor the next generation of China analysts” and “nurture cadres of officers with China-focused expertise.”
- “The IC should consider developing a series of reskilling programs to leverage existing talent and expertise previously cultivated in counterterrorism programs.”
Of particular note is the call for “enhanced focus on non-defense intelligence, particularly strategic analysis in support of the Department of State, Department of Treasury, Department of Commerce, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. health and disaster preparedness agencies, and other domestic agencies who have not historically been primary customers of the intelligence community.”
Furthermore it is necessary to strengthen the intelligence community’s “ability to categorize, disrupt, and deter the totality of Chinese influence operations occurring on U.S. soil.”
Qualified Talent Leads to Achieving Goals
The key to achieving the report’s recommendations lay with the enhancement of qualified talent. These recommendations include:
- The IC should formalize and broaden programs designed to mentor the next generation of China analysts. Agencies should leverage best practices from across the community and develop internal Senior Steering Groups to prioritize investments in specific China focused programs.
- Security clearance adjudication policies [REDACTED] with substantive expertise on China. The IC should conduct a review of security clearance adjudication policies surrounding [REDACTED].
- If an officer possesses critical skills relevant to China mission-set, such as proficiency in Mandarin Chinese, the Intelligence Community should [REDACTED].
- The IC should engage in dialogue with the U.S. Department of Education on the requirements for the future of the U.S. national security workforce.
- The IC should leverage lessons learned from providing support to the counterterrorism mission in order to identify ways in which it can embed real-time support to customers, especially those located outside of the Department of Defense, such as the Department of State, the United States Trade Representative, or U.S. health and disaster preparedness agencies.
- The IC should expand its practice of hiring technical experts, such as trained health professionals, economists, and technologists, to serve throughout the community’s analytic corps. These individuals should be permitted to narrowly specialize and carve out distinct career paths without hindering their promotion potential.
Need for Change Brings about Opportunity
There is no doubt that China is actively attempting to impress their influence upon the United States through its Thousand Talents Project, Confucius Institutes, and covert recruitment of individuals with access to the China’s diaspora in the United States. Furthermore, the multiyear effort to obtain advanced technologies through hook or by crook has been evidenced by the number of guilty pleas obtained by the Department of Justice over the course of the last fifteen years.
In sum, as the intelligence community begins to take on board the findings and adjust to adopt the recommendations, there will be employment opportunities across the spectrum of specialties ranging from public health to defense, with an undetermined percentage requiring national security clearances.
The classified version of the HPSCI report exceeds of 200 pages. The 37-page unclassified executive summary (pdf) and the four-page fact sheet (pdf) are worthy of the attention of every member of the intelligence and defense sectors.
