Imagine a scenario: Two American scientists receive an invitation from Chinese scientists to visit a research center in the People’s Republic of China that’s directly related to their agricultural field of study. The American scientists accept the invitation and travel to China to meet their counterparts. The trip is insightful for the American scientists, and they leave China after a few days of conferences and meetings. Upon returning home, the American scientists graciously extend an invitation to their Chinese hosts to visit their company. The Chinese accept and dates are set for their visit.
Once in the U.S, the Chinese scientists take a tour of the American facility and are shown several proprietary forms of rice. One of the rice strains was designed to produce a protein that could be used in the medical and pharmaceutical fields to treat a number of human illnesses.
During the tour of the American facility, a Chinese scientist grabs a handful of the proprietary rice, places the grains in his pocket, finishes the tour, walks out of the facility and leaves the United States. With just a handful of rice, that Chinese scientist steals years of American investment, research and innovation.
While this may seem fanciful, you can stop imagining — because it actually happened. The above story was based on a real investigation conducted by the FBI Little Rock division, which resulted in multiple federal indictments. This story illustrates one important fact: What the Chinese cannot create on their own, they steal. Whether it is through high-tech means or simply grabbing a handful of proprietary grains, the People’s Republic of China has consistently proven that what they lack in creativity and innovation, they make up for in outright theft.
The worst part is that this is only one of many American businesses deceived and violated by the Chinese government and their proxy businesses.
The simple fact is that the threat to American intellectual property worsens every day because of the actions of the Chinese government.
As FBI Director Christopher Wray stated to the Council on Foreign Relations earlier this year, “No country poses a broader, more severe intelligence collection threat than China.” China has pioneered an approach to stealing innovation in any way it can from businesses, universities and organizations. China is stealing our intellectual property, our scientific breakthroughs and our technological advancements through a covert web of intelligence agents, state-owned enterprises, private Chinese companies, graduate students, visiting researchers or anyone else with access to what they want. The United States welcomes healthy international competition. But we will not stand for cheating and theft.
While critics may decry prosecutions targeting defendants who are foreign nationals, their prosecutions nevertheless serve an important role. First, alleged foreign thieves under indictment will likely never return to the U.S. If they do, they will be arrested for their alleged crimes and will face a fair and impartial trial. These prosecutions also signal to the Chinese government that we are aware of their dishonest schemes. Finally, these prosecutions highlight the dangers posed to American businesses and research institutions.
The U.S. Department of Treasury estimates that Chinese theft of intellectual property costs our nation between $225 billion and $600 billion a year. Universities represent especially attractive targets. As China continues to steal our scientific innovations and intellectual property, we will continue to counter their dishonest actions, and we urge American entities to remain vigilant.
When it comes to U.S. critical infrastructure, approximately 90% is in the hands of the private sector. We urge every American business and institution that is involved with proprietary or classified innovations and intellectual property to assess its physical and cybersecurity policies and procedures. We would also encourage them to assess or develop an insider threat program to ensure you are protecting your interests — and our nation’s security.
We ask that organizations that fear they have suffered from a cyber intrusion, theft of intellectual property or face an insider threat immediately report suspicious activity to their local FBI field office. We will continue to stand beside and protect American private businesses and academic institutions from the persistent and evolving threats coming from the Chinese government.
Diane Upchurch is the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Little Rock division, where W. Ryan Kennedy is a supervisory special agent and Connor Hagan is a public affairs specialist. Email Kennedy at WRKennedy@FBI.gov.
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