"We face threats from a variety of nation states. Russia has been obviously one that's been very acute, but long term the threat posed by malicious activity coming out of China is substantial," Wales said during a virtual talk organized by the Rural Broadband Association. "They are obviously a top concern for us."
Wales said the United States sees large scale Chinese activity to compromise networks for espionage and to allegedly exploit them for future attacks.
According to Wales, the United States saw cyber-attacks from China last year when thousands of Microsoft Exchange servers were hit or compromised in the United States and around the world.
In June, the United States warned that China-backed cybercriminal groups were targeting major telecommunications companies since 2020.