(The Center Square) – Outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray’s parting warning to Americans is that China remains one of the greatest threats to the U.S. national security, a warning he’s consistently issued over the past few years.

“The greatest long-term threat facing our country, in my view, is represented by the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese government, which I consider to be the defining threat of our generation,” Wray said in an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday.

“China’s cyber program is by far and away the world's largest, bigger than that of every major nation combined,” he said. “It’s stolen more of America's personal and corporate data than that of every nation big or small combined.” But a bigger threat, he said, is the “Chinese government’s prepositioning on American civilian critical infrastructure to lie in wait on those networks to be in a position to wreak havoc and inflict real world harm at a time and place of their choosing.”

Chinese government operatives have already inserted malware into critical American infrastructure, he said, including water treatment plants, transportation systems, “bargaining of our energy sector, the electric grid, natural gas pipelines and recently we've seen targeting of our telecommunications system,” he said.

Last month, Wray announced he was resigning as FBI director. President-elect Donald Trump named former U.S. intelligence official Kash Patel to replace him.

Last year, Wray testified before Congress several times, warning of Islamic terrorist threats and national security threats posed by China and Iran.

Speaking before the American Bar Association last year, he also warned that China is “the defining threat of our generation. To put it simply, the CCP [Communist Party of China] is throwing its whole government at undermining the security and economy of the rule-of-law world. China’s hacking program is larger than that of every other major nation, combined. And if each one of the FBI’s cyber agents and intelligence analysts focused exclusively on the China threat, China’s hackers would still outnumber FBI cyber personnel by at least 50 to 1.”

His warning also came as federal authorities warned all 50 state governors of “disabling cyberattacks” targeting water and wastewater systems nationwide, reportedly being perpetrated by Iranian and Chinese state actors, and as the greatest number of Chinese nationals have illegally entered the country under the Biden administration, including one that illegally entered a U.S. Marine Corps base, The Center Square reported.

Wray explained that Chinese actors were engaged in “traditional espionage and economic espionage, foreign malign influence, election interference, and transnational repression – often working in tandem. They recruit human sources to target our businesses, using insiders to steal the same kinds of innovation and data their hackers are targeting. They’re engaging in corporate deception.”

Multiple federal warnings were also issued last year including by the National Security Agency and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that People’s Republic of China-sponsored actors compromise and maintain a persistent access to U.S. critical infrastructure.

In response, 15 state treasurers urged their states to divest pension funds from China, The Center Square reported.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for years has worked with state leaders to divest Florida money from China, also advancing bills to protect Floridians from China. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also issued several executive orders directing state entities to implement protections, The Center Square reported.

Cuban-Floridians have also expressed alarm about Chinese spies operating out of Cuba, The Center Square reported. This was after a nonprofit organization exposed PRC “police stations” illegally operating in major cities throughout the U.S., prompting the Department of Justice to file criminal complaints and members of Congress demanding answers.

Actions are expected to be taken by the Trump administration, the Republican-led Congress and Republican-led state legislatures this year after national security threats increased under the Biden administration.

Under the Biden administration the greatest number of Chinese illegal border crossers were reported illegally entering the country in U.S. history – more than 176,000, The Center Square first reported.

Chinese spies operating in the U.S. continue to be arrested, Chinese illegal border crossers breached U.S. military bases, were caught shipping weapons to North Korea, are involved in illegal birthing center operations and potentially gathering information about weapons operations, among other concerns, The Center Square reported.

Last year, Republicans in the U.S. House passed multiple bills to combat the CCP threat, which went nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate. With a new Republican majority, that is expected to change this year.