A senior U.S. Republican lawmaker has accused China of seeking to infiltrate the Federal Reserve to obtain confidential information by recruiting central bank staffers and detaining its employee visiting Shanghai.

What Happened: The Fed’s own investigations had identified several of its employees that are in contact with Chinese talent recruiters as it looks to gain insight into monetary policy and access to the internal data, Ohio Senator Rob Portman said in a statement.

“This investigation makes clear that China’s malign efforts at influence and information theft are not limited to science and technology fields — American economic and monetary policy is also being targeted by the Chinese government,” the ranking member on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Portman said.

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“The risk is clear, I urge the Fed to do more, working with the FBI, to counter this threat from one of our foremost foreign adversaries,” he added.

The Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, in a letter to Portman, expressed “strong concerns about assertions and implications” in the report, Bloomberg reported. He also assured the senator that Fed staff with access to sensitive information undergo “comprehensive” background checks.

The report from Portman came ahead of the Fed policy meeting in Washington on Wednesday and amid the heightened tensions between U.S. and China over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's planned visit to Taiwan in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden will virtually speak with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping from the White House in Washington on Thursday.

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