shutterstock_1293073468_aleks_shutter
9 July 2020Rory O'Neill

FBI director: Chinese IP theft is US’ ‘greatest threat’

The director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has said that Chinese IP theft represents the “greatest long-term threat” to the country’s economy.

In a  speech made earlier this week at an event hosted by conservative think tank the Hudson Institute, Christopher Wray reiterated the Trump administration’s claim that Beijing is systematically backing the theft of US IP.

“Through its talent recruitment programmes, like the so-called Thousand Talents Program, the Chinese government tries to entice scientists to secretly bring our knowledge and innovation back to China—even if that means stealing proprietary information or violating our export controls and conflict-of-interest rules,” the FBI director said.

According to Wray, the threat from Chinese economic espionage and IP theft to the US economy “almost defies calculation”.

The Chinese government is backing similar schemes targeting IP in US academic institutions and universities, Wray claimed.

He added: “China then leverages its ill-gotten gains to undercut US research institutions and companies, blunting our nation’s advancement and costing American jobs. And we are seeing more and more of these cases.”

In particular, Wray called out China’s leading telecoms firm and smartphone maker,  Huawei, which he described as a “serial IP thief”.

Huawei has been the primary focus of the US’ claims regarding Chinese theft of European and US IP. The Chinese company has  consistently denied the claims, and accused the FBI of “harassing” its US employees.

Concerns over Huawei’s leading role in 5G technology has prompted a fierce debate over whether the company should be allowed to build Western countries’ telecoms infrastructure.

Yet Huawei is the leading 5G patent owner in the world and is likely to exert a strong influence over the development and rollout of the technology.

The company is facing  criminal charges, including IP theft, from the US Department of Justice, and has also been “ blacklisted” by the US government.

The blacklisting has placed significant restrictions on US firms’ ability to do business with Huawei, depriving the Chinese company’s newest smartphones of Google services, including apps.

Did you enjoy reading this story?  Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox.

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk


More on this story

article
16 July 2020   The National People's Congress (NPC) of the People's Republic of China has unveiled amendments to its criminal law regarding trade secret theft, following a surge in US IP suits against Chinese nationals in the US.
article
17 July 2020   US attorney general William Barr has reiterated claims that Chinese hackers have tried to steal IP and research related to COVID-19.