Under the Trump administration, Wray has been vocal about the counterintelligence risk posed to U.S. national security from China. Early in 2018, Wray argued that the China threat is “not just a whole-of-government threat, but a whole-of-society threat on their end” during the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. Notably, Wray warned that Chinese professors, scientists, and students should also be considered as the unconventional intelligence sources for China.

Wray has also been critical to the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party. In a remark he delivered at the Hudson Institute in July 2020, Wray suggested China and the Chinese Communist Party seek to surpass the U.S. in economic and technological leadership through a “whole-of-state effort to become the world’s only superpower by any means necessary.” Wray concluded his remark by suggesting that “Confronting this threat effectively does not mean we shouldn’t do business with the Chinese. It does not mean we shouldn’t host Chinese visitors. It does not mean we shouldn’t welcome Chinese students or coexist with China on the world stage. But it does mean that when China violates our criminal laws and international norms, we are not going to tolerate it, much less enable it.”

In October, 2020, Christopher Wray delivered a remark at a press conference that announced charges against eight defendants in connection with their roles in China’s Operation Fox Hunt, which the FBI described as “a campaign to harass, stalk, and coerce certain residents of the U.S. to return to the People’s Republic of China as part of a global concerted, and extralegal repatriation effort”. Wray said “Simply put: It’s outrageous that China thinks it can come to our shores, conduct illegal operations, and bend people here in the United States to their will.” Wray concluded his remark by saying “Our concern isn’t with the Chinese people, or with Chinese Americans. Our concern is with criminal acts committed at the behest of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party.”