FBI Builds Unprecedented Crime-Fighting Ties With China and Russia Under Kash Patel
The FBI is doing something that would have seemed nearly impossible only a few years ago. Under Director Kash Patel, the agency has begun working directly with law enforcement authorities in China and Russia, two countries the United States considers major security rivals.
The new partnerships focus on transnational crimes that cross borders faster than traditional investigations can follow them. They include fentanyl trafficking, cyber fraud, child sexual exploitation and the pursuit of international fugitives.
The cooperation has already involved intelligence exchanges, official visits and joint operations. Supporters see a practical response to global criminal networks. Critics see an opportunity for hostile governments to gain access to American facilities, personnel and sensitive information.
A dramatic break from the FBI’s old approach
American officials have long accused China and Russia of supporting espionage, cyberattacks and other activities that threaten U.S. interests. The FBI still considers China its leading counterintelligence concern, while Russian intelligence operations remain a serious national security threat.
Patel is not disputing that rivalry. Instead, he argues that the FBI can oppose both countries on national security matters while cooperating with them on carefully selected criminal cases.
The relationships operate through limited working groups. Cooperation with China currently covers four areas: cyber fraud, violent crimes against children, counternarcotics and fugitive investigations.
Chinese Ministry of Public Security officials have visited multiple FBI facilities in the United States. FBI personnel have also traveled to China to work on cases and exchange investigative information.
Patel said working-level officers from China visit the United States for one month, followed by an FBI delegation traveling to China the next. The two sides are also reportedly communicating daily.
A similar relationship with Russia is developing. Patel returned from China in late July, while FBI officials have tentatively planned a trip to Russia for October.
Operation Sand Dollar produced major results.
The FBI points to Operation Sand Dollar as proof that cooperation with an adversarial country can still deliver results.
In May, the FBI, China’s Ministry of Public Security and Dubai police carried out a large raid against a cyber scam center in Dubai. The FBI said the operation led to about 300 arrests and the seizure of $300 million.
Authorities also freed thousands of trafficked workers. Criminal organizations often lure people to overseas scam compounds with false job offers, then force them to commit online fraud under threats and violence.
These operations target industrial-scale scam networks that steal billions from victims around the world. Investigators often struggle to dismantle them because the organizers, workers, bank accounts, servers, and victims may all be located in different countries.
Chinese and American authorities have also worked together on fentanyl-related investigations. An internal FBI account credited the cooperation with nine arrests, the closure of two chemical production facilities and three websites, and the seizure of precursor chemicals that may otherwise have reached the United States.
The two countries have also exchanged fugitives despite lacking a formal extradition treaty. China recently returned a person accused of serious violent crimes in the United States, while American authorities repatriated a suspect accused of crimes involving Chinese victims overseas.
Child exploitation cases create common ground.
The FBI has also worked with Chinese authorities to disrupt international child exploitation networks. These cases frequently involve digital evidence stored across several countries, making foreign cooperation essential.
A suspect may live in one nation, operate through servers in another and target victims in several more. No single police agency can obtain every record, identify every participant or make every arrest without help from foreign authorities.
That reality explains Patel’s push for what he calls “non-traditional partners.” The approach treats law enforcement cooperation as separate from the broader political and military disputes dividing Washington, Beijing and Moscow.
Patel has stressed that the partnerships will not replace America’s traditional intelligence alliances. The Five Eyes partnership with Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand remains the country’s most important intelligence relationship.
The new working groups are narrower. Patel says information sharing is restricted to specific crimes and must be reciprocal, meaning the United States expects useful cooperation in return.
Former FBI officials warn of serious risks.
Not everyone believes those boundaries will hold. Former FBI personnel and counterintelligence specialists warn that giving Chinese or Russian officials access to American facilities could create opportunities for espionage.
Foreign visitors may try to study security procedures, identify personnel or collect information about FBI technology and investigative methods. Even seemingly routine discussions could reveal details that become valuable when combined with information gathered elsewhere.
Retired FBI supervisory agent Jeff Crocker described China and Russia as American enemies that seek to harm the country economically, physically and militarily. He argued that official law enforcement visits could offer valuable cover for intelligence collection.
The concern appears especially sharp because the FBI continues investigating alleged Chinese and Russian espionage at the same time it develops these partnerships. In June, American authorities seized 13 websites allegedly used by suspected Chinese agents to target U.S. security-clearance holders.
Russian-linked hackers also remain accused of attacking American businesses, government-linked organizations and institutions supporting Ukraine. Cooperation on one category of crime does not erase those active investigations.
Patel says the FBI understands the danger. According to him, every foreign visitor undergoes vetting, while counterintelligence personnel use electronic and physical surveillance to protect sensitive facilities and information.
A test of cooperation without trust
The FBI’s new approach does not depend on friendship between Washington, Beijing and Moscow. It depends on the belief that rivals can still share a narrow interest in dismantling criminal networks that threaten all three countries.
That strategy could produce more arrests, save trafficking victims and disrupt the chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl. It could also expose the FBI to intelligence risks that are difficult to measure until damage has occurred.
The success of Patel’s experiment will therefore depend on control. Cooperation must remain limited enough to protect national secrets but broad enough to deliver real law enforcement results.
For now, the FBI is attempting a difficult balance: working with governments it does not trust to catch criminals that no country can stop alone.
