FBI Director Kash Patel's unprecedented law enforcement partnerships with China and Russia have triggered significant alarm within the U.S. counterintelligence community, according to a new report.
Former FBI supervisory agent Jeff Crocker warned that allowing Chinese officials access to American intelligence facilities creates vulnerability, Reuters reported Wednesday.
"China and Russia are our enemies, period," Crocker reportedly said. "They are actively trying to harm our country physically, economically and militarily. Chinese and Russian agents would use any access to U.S. facilities as an opportunity to infiltrate them."
The partnerships, internally known as "working groups," began with President Donald Trump's May 2025 visit to China and have expanded to include four operational areas – cyber fraud, violent crimes against children, counternarcotics and fugitive task forces, Reuters reported.
Patel has made multiple trips to Beijing, with a planned October visit to Russia to deepen cooperation with Moscow, the report stated.
The collaboration involves direct personnel exchanges, with Chinese Ministry of Public Security officials visiting FBI facilities monthly while FBI agents travel to China for joint investigations.
"Every month, they send their working-level MPS officers here, and the following month we go there," Patel said. "They are speaking with us daily, which has also never happened before."
The arrangement has already yielded tangible results.
In May, the FBI, China's Ministry of Public Security, and Dubai police jointly executed "Operation Sand Dollar," a raid on a cyber scam center that resulted in 300 arrests, $300 million seized, and thousands of trafficked workers freed.
An internal FBI memo credited cooperation with Chinese authorities in shutting down two chemical production facilities and three websites involved in fentanyl precursor production destined for the United States.
Patel defended the arrangement, claiming that counterintelligence measures and surveillance protocols protect against espionage.
"We know exactly who is coming here, and we vet them," Patel said, insisting that sharing is limited to specific transnational crimes and reciprocal intelligence.
Patel insisted the partnerships would not diminish the "Five Eyes" alliance with Canada, Australia, Britain and New Zealand, characterizing the initiative as law enforcement's "unique lane" to pursue an "apolitical mission" focused on combating fentanyl trafficking and child exploitation.
The cooperation represents a significant shift in U.S. foreign policy approach. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered cautious assessment, calling Chinese cooperation on fentanyl precursors "a work in progress," while acknowledging progress but noting gaps remain, but Patel claimed the partners show what becomes possible when traditional objections are overcome.
"The fact that we did it with China when everyone said, 'Don't do it,' and 'You can't do it,' shows what we can do with almost anyone," Patel said.
