Key Points
- The China Initiative launched in 2018 to combat the rise in Chinese espionage.
- Trump’s DOJ started it and the Biden administration continues the efforts.
- The program has had some success, but it has critics who want to shut it down.
Since the year 2000, there have been 160 reported instances of Chinese espionage directed at the United States and 1200 cases of intellectual property theft litigation against Chinese entities (these are just the ones we know about). FBI Director Christopher Wren says, “The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat from China.”
In 2018, then-President Donald Trump and his Department of Justice took aim at the skyrocketing instances of Chinese national security threats: economic aggressions, trade espionage, intellectual property theft, cyber crime —it was out of control.
And so, the China Initiative was born.
“In addition to identifying and prosecuting those engaged in trade secret theft, hacking, and economic espionage, the Initiative focuses on protecting our critical infrastructure against external threats through foreign direct investment and supply chain compromises, as well as combatting covert efforts to influence the American public and policymakers without proper transparency,” it says on the DOJ website.
Here are some China Initiative-related case examples from the Center for Strategic & International Studies:
Chinese national Suren Qin pleaded guilty to illegally exporting $100,000 of U.S. goods to PLA-affiliated Northwester Polytechnical University in China. Qin primarily sent underwater and marine technologies to the PRC through their company LinkOcean Technologies, LTD.
Chinese national Cheng Bo, aka Jo Cheng, was indicted for conspiring to illegally export U.S. power amplifiers to China between 2012 and 2015.
The U.S., NATO, and allies accused the PRC of using contract hackers to conduct an ongoing global cyberespionage campaign that includes ransomware attacks, cyber extortion, crypto-jacking, and rank theft.
…and those are just a few of the cases this year.
The Biden administration has continued the work of its predecessor, but now critics are calling for an end to the initiative. The reason: they’re going after too many Chinese people; accusations of racism and misconduct abound. Recent research conducted by the MIT Technology Review found nearly 90% of China Initiative defendants are of Chinese origin. But why is that a surprise to anyone?
In his book Chinese Espionage: Operations & Tactics, Nicholas Eftimiades researched 595 documented cases of China’s worldwide intelligence collection efforts. One of his key findings: “90% of espionage activities are done by ethnic Chinese. Over 80% are male.”
Go figure.
According to the DOJ website, “About 80 percent of all economic espionage prosecutions brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) allege conduct that would benefit the Chinese state, and there is at least some nexus to China in around 60 percent of all trade secret theft cases.”
Now is not the time to pull the plug on the China Initiative.
