Protecting American High-End Research as China Rises

BEIJING â€" If the authors of a new book, “Chinese Industrial Espionage,” are right, and China is carrying out one of the greatest intellectual heists of history in its systematic transfer of the advanced research and development of other nations â€" including the West, Japan and elsewhere â€" to China, what can the world do to protect its intellectual property?

As Edward Wong and I reported recently in The New York Times, and I explored further today in a Letter from China about the “whys” of the situation, the authors, William C. Hannas, James Mulvenon and Anna B. Puglisi, who do research for the United States government, write that since the mid-1950s China has engaged in a meticulous campaign to bring the world’s technology to China in ways that are legal, illegal and, mostly, “extralegal,” because they’re hidden from view. The campaign is intended as “a shortcut to development,” they write. One way it’s done is by appealing to the patriotic sentiments of the hundreds of thousands of Chinese who study and live abroad to “bring back” their knowledge to serve China.

To readers who may say China’s efforts to gather foreign technology are “normal business practice,” they write: “It is neither ‘normal’ nor ‘business,’ but a state-sponsored assault on foreign invention that includes every dodge and malpractice up to and including espionage â€" then goes beyond espionage through a Gulag of ‘transfer centers’ that ensure the pillage goes into products.”

Importantly to the authors, they caution that while the problem needs to be addressed, it must not be allowed to turn into suspicions of Chinese and Chinese-Americans.

Frank H. Wu, a law school dean and member of the Committee of 100, a Chinese-American advocacy group, agrees.

In our earlier story in The Times, Mr. Wu said, “This is complicated because the facts are messy.” He went on to say, in a telephone interview from California, “On the one hand there is wrongdoing. There are previous cases of corporate espionage, cybersecurity breaches, hacking as well, credible concerns. And it seems clear that the Chinese government is intent on appealing to Chinese on an ethnic basis.”

But he urged Americans to remain fair. “The real question is, how should Americans behave in the face of uncertainty?” he asked.

“If we Americans are true to our ideals it’s always ‘innocent until proven guilty,’” Mr. Wu said. “That’s the bedrock principle. The U.S. wants China to adopt rule of law. At the heart of the rule of law is due process, neutrality and fairness. And the single phrase that captures rule of law is ‘innocent until proven guilty.’ The real question isn’t about China, it’s about America. Will we live up to our ideals? Do we live up to our ideals?”

Daniel Zhu was born in China, studied in the United States and now divides his time between China and the West. He is the founder of Zaptron Systems and president of a California-based overseas Chinese association named by the authors in the book. He said people have the right to bring back their own technologies to China if they want.

In a telephone interview in Beijing, he said: “I do my business and I develop my technology and I sell my products to my customers.” In his field, data mining for the stock market, he is the best, he said. “I don’t need to steal anyone’s technology.”

In their conclusion, the authors, who called the transfer policies “unfair” in written answers to questions, have suggestions how it can be stopped. They warn that the individualism valued by many Americans is a weakness: America must “find ways as a nation to take collective action against the common threat.”

Some suggestions: overall, America needs “a better understanding of the benefits and costs” of having very large numbers of Chinese students studying on its campuses, to stop “possible illicit technology transfers by students,” they write. America’s export control system needs to be reformed. And it needs to get technology transfer and espionage onto the agenda of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, the high-level, ongoing talks between China and the United States, they write.