Allegations of intellectual property theft by China
Overview
According to Derek Scissors of the American Enterprise Institute, Chinese firms have been able to spend more on production, undercutting the prices of global competitors, by leapfrogging the often costly research and development phase through intellectual property theft.[8] According to James Lewis, senior vice president and director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Technology Policy Program, "Chinese policy is to extract technologies from Western companies; use subsidies and nontariff barriers to competition to build national champions; and then create a protected domestic market for these champions to give them an advantage as they compete globally".[9] After acquiring intellectual property, Chinese government subsidies and regulations helps Chinese companies secure market shares in the global markets at the expense of the U.S.[8]
Japanese and European rail businesses have, for example, stated that Chinese rail companies used technology from shared ventures to become big in high-speed rail.
According to William Schneider Jr., "China has institutionalized a system that combines legal and illegal means of technology acquisition from abroad".[2] The issue is not limited to the United States, but is also reported in Europe,[12] and according to William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, China directs similar efforts towards other NATO members.[9] According to CNN, some U.S. officials and analysts have pointed to China's Made in China 2025 plan as "a rubric for the types of companies whose data Chinese hackers have targeted".[13]
In 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama had agreed neither government would "conduct or knowingly support cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property".[13] This led to an 18-month decrease in Chinese hacking, ending with the increased trade conflicts under the Trump administration.[14]
According to Adam Meyers, working for the cyber-security firm
A
Hacking allegations
According to the
A 2018 report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, looking at incidents from Germany, Australia and the United States, including the Rio Tinto hack, stated that China was likely to be in breach of its bilateral cyber espionage agreements.[18] According to professor Greg Austin, from UNSW Canberra Cyber, the more concerning problem is not intellectual property espionage, which he believes is also practiced by the United States, but Chinese laws pressuring foreign corporations in China to hand over intellectual property. "That's a practice that Australia needs to pay more attention to, not the almost unstoppable practice of Chinese government theft of commercial secrets through espionage".[18]
In 2022, the security firm
Responses
Chinese enforcement efforts and litigation
The number of IP cases prosecuted criminally in Chinese courts has been on a significant upward trend from 2005 to 2015,[20] suggesting tougher enforcement of IP laws.[6]
According to academic Scott M. Moore, Foreign firms have been increasingly successful in litigating patent infringement suits in China, winning approximately 70% of the time in the period 2006 to 2011, and rising to approximately 80% in the late 2010s.[6]
A joint China-United States customs action in 2017 uncovered 1600 instances of intellectual property theft in goods exported to the United States. China's customs office issued a statement saying it would "actively promote increased cooperation with customs administrations of all countries and regions to jointly fight and comprehensively manage" intellectual property rights.[21]
In 2019, China adopted new Foreign Investment Law banning forced technology transfers.[6]
Despite making efforts in intellectual property protection in China, a major obstacle in prosecution is corruption in courts; local protectionism and political influence prohibits effective enforcement of intellectual property laws.[22] To help overcome local corruption, China established specialized IP courts and sharply increased financial penalties.[6]
U.S. enforcement efforts and litigation
Intellectual property theft was one of the reasons behind the China–United States trade war.[23][12][24]
In 2019,
In 2020,
After the
The FBI had more than 1,000 cases of intellectual property theft involving individuals associated with the People's Republic of China open in 2020.[9] According to Christopher Wray, the FBI opens a new Chinese counterintelligence investigation every 12 hours.[17] According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 80 percent of its economic espionage cases involve the People's Republic of China.[8]
See also
- Industrial espionage
- Intellectual property in China
- Chinese intelligence activity abroad
- Chinese espionage in the United States
- China–United States trade war
- Australia–China trade war
References
- ^ Kolata, Gina (4 November 2019). "Vast Dragnet Targets Theft of Biomedical Secrets for China". New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 November 2019. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ a b Magnusson, Stew (22 November 2019). "Expert Details What China Does After Stealing IP". National Defense. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- from the original on 2023-05-13. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
- )
- ^ a b Bradsher, Keith (15 January 2020). "How China Obtains American Trade Secrets". New York Times. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ OCLC 1316703008. Archived from the original on 2022-07-24. Retrieved 2022-07-26.)
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ISBN 978-1-9848-7828-1.
- ^ a b c Scissors, Derek (16 July 2021). "The Rising Risk of China's Intellectual-property Theft". American Enterprise Institute. National Review. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Gates, Megan (1 July 2020). "An Unfair Advantage: Confronting Organized Intellectual Property Theft". asisonline. Archived from the original on 5 April 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ Tejada, Carlos (22 March 2018). "Beg, Borrow or Steal: How Trump Says China Takes Technology". New York Times. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ Conger, Kate; Frenkel, Sheera (6 March 2021). "Thousands of Microsoft Customers May Have Been Victims of Hack Tied to China". New York Times. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ a b c d "America is struggling to counter China's intellectual property theft". Financial Times. 18 April 2022. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ a b c d e Lyngaas, Sean (4 May 2022). "Chinese hackers cast wide net for trade secrets in US, Europe and Asia, researchers say". CNN. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ a b c Perlroth, Nicole (19 July 2021). "How China Transformed Into a Prime Cyber Threat to the U.S." New York Times. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ Dilanian, Ken (9 October 2018). "China's hackers are stealing secrets from U.S. firms again, experts say". NBC News. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ Rosenbaum, Eric (1 March 2019). "1 in 5 corporations say China has stolen their IP within the last year: CNBC CFO survey". CNBC. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ a b Sganga, Nicole (4 May 2022). "Chinese hackers took trillions in intellectual property from about 30 multinational companies". CBS News. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ a b Oriti, Thomas (24 September 2018). "China is still stealing intellectual property — but that's not the biggest problem". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ Klovig Skelton, Sebastian (4 May 2022). "Intellectual property theft operation attributed to Winnti group". ComputerWeekly. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- from the original on 2022-11-05. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
- ^ Letts, Stephen (2018-03-10). "Intellectual property theft, not metal, is the real trade war in US sights and it's a much bigger worry". ABC News. Archived from the original on 2023-04-05. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
- ^ Rechtschaffen, Daniel (11 November 2020). "How China's Legal System Enables Intellectual Property Theft". The Diplomat. Archived from the original on 27 June 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ Letts, Stephen (10 March 2018). "Intellectual property theft, not metal, is the real trade war in US sights and it's a much bigger worry". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ Huang, Yukon (16 October 2019). "China's Record on Intellectual Property Rights Is Getting Better and Better". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ Debter, Lauren (31 July 2019). "Walmart, Amazon And Target Sued Over Unauthorized Sales Of Popular Vintage Light Bulbs". Forbes. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
- ^ "Huawei hit with fresh charges of sabotage and intellectual property theft from US tech firms". France24. 13 February 2020. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2022.