#The crackdown chinese economic espionage mess software#

The Intellectual Property Commission Report provided an estimate of the cost of IP theft for the United States in three categories - counterfeit and pirated tangible goods, software piracy, and trade theft. economy from China’s economic espionage is $320 billion. Cyber espionage and insider access (recruitments of agents) are the primary means to collect this type of information.Ī conservative estimate of the annual cost to the U.S. It is primarily the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), state owned enterprises (SOEs), and private companies/individuals who conduct this type of economic espionage. Economic espionage activities comprise stealing trade secrets, manufacturing capabilities, material development techniques and data, consumer market data, source code, software, etc. economy through loss of intellectual property. political institutions and governance.įirst order effects of China’s espionage include the impact on the U.S. economy (through intellectual property theft), the impact on national security, and the impact on U.S.

The impact of China’s espionage activities can be divided into three categories: The impact on the U.S. The volume of China’s espionage efforts combined with a trade imbalance, military growth, and foreign and trade policies have driven espionage out of its traditional shadows into the public domain. More often, the national security apparatus adjusted policies, procedures, and budgets to address the perceived threat. Up until the mid-1990s foreign espionage only occasionally overtly affected U.S.

#The crackdown chinese economic espionage mess full#

With that in mind, what is the cumulative impact of China’s espionage activities – or, to cite that commander, “why do I care?”Įnjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Get briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific. A number of military commanders echoed similar sentiments to me over the decades. Our counter-spy stuff was “neat,” but it would have little to no impact in a major military conflict and as such, was nothing more than a sideshow for a military commander. They didn’t have the defensive ability to stop him or the military-industrial capacity to resupply and rebuild. It didn’t matter what the North Koreans did if a conflict arose, he was going to pound them into the dirt (this was before their nuclear advances). But why do I care?” I was soon to learn the Commander’s perspective. I still remember the boss’s words: “Don’t get me wrong. We completed a briefing on North Korean espionage activities. Many years ago, I sat in on a briefing to the commander of what was then called U.S. Impact of Chinese Espionage on the United States Lastly, China’s espionage activities continue unabated despite a large number of arrests, public exposure, and most recently, U.S. The only notable area in which China has shown minimal advancement has been in applying sophisticated espionage tradecraft. These information objectives are tied to national defense and economic priorities. There is also a national construct in place (however redundant) to ensure intelligence information objectives are satisfied by collecting foreign information and technology.

national security.Ĭhina’s espionage operations have expanded dramatically, increasing in the number of operations, personnel, government, and state-owned enterprises, and foreign targets.

Among the most important conclusions are the impacts on various components of U.S. Several high-level conclusions can be drawn from those cases, which represent the last 20 years of Chinese espionage operations. In my recent study at Penn State University, I analyzed 274 cases of Chinese espionage.