China’s Theft of U.S. Trade Secrets Under Scrutiny

Mara Hvistendahl wrote for Science Magazine on a new report on trade secrets theft:

When it comes to intellectual property (IP) theft, there’s the rest of the world, and then there’s China, a new report says. In 2015, mainland China and Hong Kong accounted for 87% of counterfeit goods seized by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. China’s share of trade secrets theft, though harder to track, is not far behind, claims the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property in Washington, D.C., a bipartisan nongovernmental group co-chaired by former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr., who served as U.S. ambassador to China from 2009 to 2011.

Stolen trade secrets, pirated software, and counterfeiting cost the United States between $225 billion and $600 billion per year, the commission estimates. The report singled out as suspect China’s targeting of biotechnology and quantum communications technology. “The massive theft of American IP … threatens our nation’s security as well as vitality,” said former Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair, co-chair of the commission, in a press release.