China stealing strategic secrets from US, via researchers & entrepreneurs, allege US Congress & FBI

Washington/Beijing: The US Congress and the investigative agencies, have claimed that China was stealing highly sensitive strategic information via thousands of researchers, engineers and entrepreneurs. The US Congressional Committee warned that such Chinese activities were going on for more than a decade and the sole ambition behind them was to replace the United States as the world’s superpower.

US President Donald Trump has consistently accused China of looting the United States. It was, therefore, that President Trump cited China’s loot and declared an open trade war against the state. Also, through the trade war, President Trump has brought China to its knees over the last one and a half years. At the same time, Trump has also undertaken an aggressive campaign against the Chinese investments in the United States, the use of Chinese technology by the US companies and the growing Chinese influence in the United States.

Trump has also appealed to the US Congress and administration to adopt an aggressive stance against China, and the Congressional Committee’s fresh accusation seems to be a part of the same strategy. Furthermore, China’s conspiracy has been exposed through the information revealed by the Senior Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), during a hearing before the Senate.

China has set the objective of becoming a technology superpower by 2025 and is employing all possible means for the purpose. The country was making movements for achieving the goal for the last decade and has launched the ‘Thousand Talents Program’ for the purpose. The initiative has been operational since 2008 with more than 7,000 US researchers, engineers and entrepreneurs being enrolled for the program.

The US researchers and engineers were used to collect information that can be categorised as sensitive and confidential. Under the initiative, China has established Shadow Labs where it duplicates the US research, acquires patents for the technology and then uses it in China.

During the congressional hearing, assistant director of FBI John Brown alleged the technology was vital to maintaining military as also economic power and China was progressing by stealing this technology. Brown highlighted that China was observed to stoop down to any level to pull the United States down from its position as the global superpower even in the past.

A few months ago, the US Congress had blamed the Chinese military of sending students and researchers on a massive scale to foreign countries, including the United States and using their knowledge against its adversaries. The US Congress had presented a bill to prevent entry for the students and researchers that were linked to the Chinese military in the US educational institutions, which involved sensitive research.