A Professional Assessment of Chinese Espionage

摘要

In May 2013, the bipartisan Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property concluded that U.S. companies had suffered $300 billion in losses because of stolen trade secrets. The commission, co-chaired by former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, Jr. and former Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair, further concluded that China accounted for "between 50% and 80% of the problem." China stood out to the commission for the following reason: A core component of China's successful growth strategy is acquiring science and technology. It does this in part by legal means-imports, foreign domestic investment, licensing, and joint ventures-but also by means that are illegal. National industrial policy goals in China encourage IP theft, and an extraordinary number of Chinese in business and government entities are engaged in this practice. The commission's final report is filled with anecdotes of Chinese theft of U.S. intellectual property and references to U.S. government statements about the seriousness of Chinese economic espionage. The central role Beijing plays in U.S. concerns about such theft dates to the 1980s when Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sources told journalists that China had surpassed the Soviet Union's espionage activities, at least in California.