![]() ![]() ![]() It has continued for years, likely involving thousands of agents. When Alexander Hamilton was Treasury secretary in the 1790s, for instance, he oversaw operations to steal plans for textile machinery from Britain.īut the scale of China’s campaign really does seem notable. China’s industrial espionage also has plenty of historical precedent in other countries. The story offers a glimpse of an important aspect of the intelligence battle between China and the U.S.: As part of China’s efforts to build up its economy, it has devoted significant resources to stealing intellectual property from private companies in higher-income countries.Ĭhina’s rapid economic rise since the 1980s mostly stems from other factors, of course: its educated population, its investments in science and infrastructure, the sheer size of its population and more. I found it both entertaining and revelatory and encourage you to make time to read it this week. This real-life spy story is the subject of a new Times Magazine article by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, who’s a longtime intelligence writer. was coaching Hua and ultimately hoping to set up a meeting in a European country where Hua’s handler could be arrested and extradited to the United States. Over the next six months, one of his hosts in Nanjing - a Ministry of State Security employee who had posed as a regional economic development official - tried to persuade Hua to download sensitive material from GE computers. agent later interviewed him about the trip, Hua dissembled and said he was only visiting friends and family.īy this point, Hua was facing likely criminal charges for lying to a federal agent, and he agreed to participate in a counterintelligence operation rather than being charged. So he accepted the invitation - and traveled to Nanjing - without telling his bosses. Hua, as The New York Times is referring to him, was an engineer at GE Aviation in Cincinnati, and a Chinese aeronautical university had asked him to come back to China in 2017 to deliver a lecture about his field.īut Hua knew that GE might deny him permission to give the talk out of a concern that it would betray proprietary information. The invitation seemed like an exciting honor. ![]()
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