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FBI expands crime-fighting cooperation with China and Russia under Patel

Joint raids, personnel exchanges and working groups mark a shift in US law enforcement partnerships with two geopolitical rivals

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

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FBI expands crime-fighting cooperation with China and Russia under Patel

What this story says

  • FBI Director Kash Patel has established working groups with China and Russia focused on fentanyl, cyber fraud, child exploitation and fugitive cases.
  • The partnerships involve monthly personnel exchanges, joint raids and intelligence sharing, including a Dubai operation that led to 300 arrests.
  • The initiatives began after President Donald Trump’s 2025 visit to China and have raised concerns within the US counterintelligence community.
  • Patel described the cooperation as limited and selective, while critics warn of espionage risks from sharing sensitive information with authoritarian regimes.

Who covered it

Left 21%(8)Centre 23%(9)Right 56%(22)

Percentages are shares of the 39 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 17 of the 56 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

70/100

Craft

65/100

Hype

25/100

56 sources · methodology

Missing from the left

Only 8 of the 39 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.

A reader who follows the left would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

FBI Director Kash Patel has established law enforcement partnerships with China and Russia over the past year to combat transnational crimes. The cooperation, which Patel described as selective and limited, focuses on fentanyl trafficking, cyber fraud, child sexual exploitation and fugitive cases. The partnerships involve monthly personnel exchanges, joint raids and intelligence sharing between US and Chinese officials.

The initiatives began after President Donald Trump’s visit to China in May 2025. Patel has since made two trips to China and met with Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong and Vice Minister Xu Datong. A trip to Russia is tentatively planned for October 2026. The FBI and Chinese authorities conducted a joint raid in Dubai in May 2026, dubbed "Operation Sand Dollar", which resulted in 300 arrests, the seizure of $300 million and the rescue of thousands of trafficked workers.

Patel told Reuters the partnerships are narrow in scope and do not replace longstanding alliances such as the "Five Eyes" intelligence network. He said counterintelligence measures are in place for foreign visitors to FBI facilities. Former FBI supervisory agent Jeff Crocker, who retired in 2024, warned that China and Russia would use access to US facilities for espionage, calling the cooperation "great cover" for infiltration.

What the coverage left out

None of the right-rated digests mentioned the repatriation of a suspect from China to the US, a detail included in the full reports from The Express Tribune and HuffPost. The left-rated reports did not include the Chinese Embassy’s statement that "dialogue and negotiation are the right way forward", which appeared in the centre-rated full report from The Express Tribune.

Coverage settled. We checked this 23 times and stopped on 11 Aug 2026, 01:45. The figures above are what it finished at.

How other outlets pictured it

Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.

FBI expands crime-fighting cooperation with China and Russia under Patel
HuffPostLeft

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

8 rated outlets

  • Left-rated outlets reported that FBI Director Kash Patel established law enforcement partnerships with China and Russia to combat transnational crimes such as fentanyl trafficking, cyber fraud, and child exploitation. All eight outlets carried Patel’s description of these as “non-traditional partners” and “selective” arrangements. Six digests and the HuffPost report noted joint raids, personnel exchanges, and a planned October trip to Russia.
  • The HuffPost report led on counterintelligence concerns raised by the partnerships, quoting a former FBI supervisory agent. Raw Story’s digest also highlighted alarm within the U.S. counterintelligence community. None of the other six outlets mentioned these concerns. The HuffPost report alone named “Operation Sand Dollar,” the Dubai raid that resulted in 300 arrests and $300 million seized.
  • HuffPost and two digests quoted Patel calling the regimes “adversarial” but “dynamic relationships.” The HuffPost report included his statement that risks “can be managed.” No other outlet carried this phrasing or the detail that the partnerships began during Donald Trump’s 2025 visit to China.

Centre

9 rated outlets

  • The two centre-rated reports, from The Express Tribune and Reuters, provided detailed accounts of the partnerships’ structure and scope. The Express Tribune’s full report described the four working groups, cyber fraud, violent crimes against children, counternarcotics and a fugitive task force, and quoted Patel’s statement that the cooperation is "an apolitical mission". Reuters’ digest summarised the partnerships’ focus on transnational crimes and the personnel exchanges involved.
  • Both reports included the "Operation Sand Dollar" raid in Dubai and Patel’s assertion that the partnerships do not replace the "Five Eyes" alliance. The Express Tribune quoted Patel’s remark that the relationships are "new and dynamic" and his insistence that they are managed with awareness of China and Russia’s adversarial stance.

Right

22 rated outlets

  • The six right-rated digests led on the partnerships’ departure from past US policy and the security risks involved. India Today, De Telegraaf, Pakistan Today, Times of India and The Straits Times all noted the shift in approach and the focus on crimes such as fentanyl trafficking and cyber fraud. De Telegraaf’s digest explicitly called the sharing of sensitive information "dangerous".
  • Korrespondent.net’s digest described the partnerships as a "new era" of cooperation, while India Today and Pakistan Today emphasised their limited scope. None of the right-rated digests mentioned the "Operation Sand Dollar" raid or the specific counterintelligence measures Patel described. The focus was on the broader implications of the partnerships and the potential risks to US security.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover FBI expands crime-fighting cooperation with China and Russia under Patel?
Of the 39 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 21% are rated left, 23% are rated centre, 56% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 56. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is FBI expands crime-fighting cooperation with China and Russia under Patel left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 39 rated outlets on this story, 21% are rated left, 23% are rated centre, 56% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of FBI expands crime-fighting cooperation with China and Russia under Patel biased?
FBI expands crime-fighting cooperation with China and Russia under Patel is one event reported by 56 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting FBI expands crime-fighting cooperation with China and Russia under Patel?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered FBI expands crime-fighting cooperation with China and Russia under Patel?
56 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
What crimes are the FBI’s partnerships with China and Russia focused on?
The partnerships target fentanyl trafficking, cyber fraud, child sexual exploitation and fugitive cases. FBI Director Kash Patel described the cooperation as selective and limited to these areas, with working groups established for each type of crime. The initiatives began after President Donald Trump’s 2025 visit to China.
What was 'Operation Sand Dollar'?
Operation Sand Dollar was a joint raid conducted in Dubai in May 2026 by the FBI, China’s Ministry of Public Security and Dubai police. The operation led to 300 arrests, the seizure of $300 million and the rescue of thousands of trafficked workers. It is cited as a key example of the new law enforcement cooperation.
Why are US counterintelligence officials concerned about the partnerships?
Critics, including former FBI supervisory agent Jeff Crocker, warn that China and Russia could exploit access to US facilities for espionage. The partnerships involve sharing sensitive information with authoritarian regimes, which US officials have historically viewed as adversaries. Patel has acknowledged the risks but insists they are managed.
How do the partnerships differ from past US policy?
The partnerships mark a shift from viewing China and Russia solely as exporters of crime and sources of espionage. They involve monthly personnel exchanges, joint raids and intelligence sharing, which were previously rare or nonexistent. Patel described the cooperation as a break from past practice but not a replacement for alliances like "Five Eyes".

Read it at the source

57 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

8

Centre

9
Show 1 more

Right

23
Show 15 more

Not rated

17
Show 9 more

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

FBI expands law enforcement ties with China and Russia under Patel | MediaBias News