China and America are the two most powerful countries in the world. They have clashing interests. The stronger China gets, the weaker America becomes. It is in America’s interest to do everything it can to slow China’s rise.
We could start by deporting the three million Chinese nationals studying in American universities.
If spying is the world’s second oldest profession, the government of China has given it a new, modern-day twist, enlisting an army of spies not to steal military secrets but the trade secrets and intellectual property of American companies. It’s being called “the great brain robbery of America.”
The Justice Department says that the scale of China’s corporate espionage is so vast it constitutes a national security emergency, with China targeting virtually every sector of the U.S. economy, and costing American companies hundreds of billions of dollars in losses — and more than two million jobs.
John Carlin: They’re targeting our private companies. And it’s not a fair fight. A private company can’t compete against the resources of the second largest economy in the world.
John Carlin is the assistant attorney general for National Security with responsibility for counterterrorism, cyberattacks and increasingly economic espionage.
John Carlin: This is a serious threat to our national security. I mean, our economy depends on the ability to innovate. And if there’s a dedicated nation state who’s using its intelligence apparatus to steal day in and day out what we’re trying to develop, that poses a serious threat to our country.
Lesley Stahl: What is their ultimate goal, the Chinese government’s ultimate goal?
John Carlin: They want to develop certain segments of industry and instead of trying to out-innovate, out-research, out-develop, they’re choosing to do it through theft.
All you have to do, he says, is look at the economic plans published periodically by the Chinese Politburo. They are, according to this recent report by the technology research firm INVNT/IP, in effect, blueprints of what industries and what companies will be targeted for theft.
John Carlin: We see them put out the strategic plan, and then we see actions follow that plan. We see intrusion after intrusion on U.S. companies.
Lesley Stahl: Do you have a number of U.S. companies that have been hit?
John Carlin: It’s thousands of actually companies have been hit.
Lesley Stahl: Thousands of U.S. companies?
John Carlin: Of U.S. companies.
