The US Crackdown on Chinese Economic Espionage is a Mess 65
The US government's China Initiative sought to protect national security. In the most comprehensive analysis of cases to date, MIT Technology Review reveals how far it has strayed from its goals. Technology Review: A visiting researcher at UCLA accused of hiding his connection to China's People's Liberation Army. A hacker indicted for breaking into video game company servers in his spare time. A Harvard professor accused of lying to investigators about funding from China. And a man sentenced for organizing a turtle-smuggling ring between New York and Hong Kong. For years, the US Department of Justice has used these cases to highlight the success of its China Initiative, an effort to counter rising concerns about Chinese economic espionage and threats to US national security. Started in 2018, the initiative was a centerpiece of the Trump administration's hardening stance against China. Now, an investigation by MIT Technology Review shows that the China Initiative has strayed far from its initial mission. Instead of focusing on economic espionage and national security, the initiative now appears to be an umbrella term for cases with almost any connection to China, whether they involve state-sponsored hackers, smugglers, or, increasingly, academics accused of failing to disclose all ties to China on grant-related forms.
To date, only about a quarter of defendants charged under the initiative have been convicted, and about half of those defendants with open charges have yet to see the inside of an American courtroom. Although the program has become a top priority of US law enforcement and domestic counterintelligence efforts -- and an unusual one, as the first country-specific initiative -- many details have remained murky. The DOJ has not publicly defined the initiative or answered many basic questions about it, making it difficult to understand, let alone assess or exercise oversight of it, according to many civil rights advocates, lawmakers, and scholars. While the threat of Chinese intellectual property theft is real, critics wonder if the China Initiative is the right way to counteract it. Today, after months of research and investigation, MIT Technology Review is publishing a searchable database of 77 cases and more than 150 defendants. While likely incomplete, the database represents the most comprehensive accounting of the China Initiative prosecutions to date. Our reporting and analysis showed that the climate of fear created by the prosecutions has already pushed some talented scientists to leave the United States and made it more difficult for others to enter or stay, endangering America's ability to attract new talent in science and technology from China and around the world.
To date, only about a quarter of defendants charged under the initiative have been convicted, and about half of those defendants with open charges have yet to see the inside of an American courtroom. Although the program has become a top priority of US law enforcement and domestic counterintelligence efforts -- and an unusual one, as the first country-specific initiative -- many details have remained murky. The DOJ has not publicly defined the initiative or answered many basic questions about it, making it difficult to understand, let alone assess or exercise oversight of it, according to many civil rights advocates, lawmakers, and scholars. While the threat of Chinese intellectual property theft is real, critics wonder if the China Initiative is the right way to counteract it. Today, after months of research and investigation, MIT Technology Review is publishing a searchable database of 77 cases and more than 150 defendants. While likely incomplete, the database represents the most comprehensive accounting of the China Initiative prosecutions to date. Our reporting and analysis showed that the climate of fear created by the prosecutions has already pushed some talented scientists to leave the United States and made it more difficult for others to enter or stay, endangering America's ability to attract new talent in science and technology from China and around the world.
Turtle smuggling (Score:5, Funny)
...a man sentenced for organizing a turtle-smuggling ring between New York and Hong Kong
Well, at least that explains Mitch McConnell.
Re: Turtle smuggling (Score:2)
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I thought the giant rat with the turtles was supposed to be a good guy.
Dear god!! ... there's four instances of Mitch McConnell?!?!?!
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I thought the giant rat with the turtles was supposed to be a good guy.
Dang, it's even worse than I thought: http://westwoodenabler.com/mit... [westwoodenabler.com]
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Re:Meanwhile, in LA (Score:4, Funny)
Their cameras can't zoom in on something THAT small
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The Trump administration had no idea of what it was doing?
champion fake news about evil outside enemy, fund organizations to spurt nonsense non-stop about that enemy ... i think they had a very clear idea of what they were doing. to their credit, it was that exact same sort of crap what got them into office in the first place (with (some (considerable))) help from a burnt out, terminally decadent and corrupt bipartisan system.
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I can't remember any administration that this doesn't apply to
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Frankly, I think we should offer China a USA (United States of Asia) franchise, so we can enter into a non-compete agreement. That would also leave open bidding for the African USA franchise, IMAGINE THE PROFITS!!!
Everywhere else would quickly fall by the wayside, eliminating opposition to the designation Earthica [theinfosphere.org] and a single world government that could gain Culture [wikipedia.org] status.
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To be fair when Obama came to office Chinese hacking was beyond insane; remember things like the theft of F-35 designs etc.
Their response to this was releasing indictments for the arrest of the Chinese generals in charge of these hacking operations. Why is this an effective response you ask? The photos of the Chinese generals on each of their indictments were stolen from each of the general's personal laptops.
So yeah, at that point China largely backed off, and that's when the Russia threat became more obvi
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Sadly, THIS [chinausfocus.com] also occurred during President Obama's tenure, even if it had been in use for a decade beforehand.
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Agreed and amen. I first became politically aware during Nixon if that is any indication.
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I can't remember any administration that this doesn't apply to
I'm not a fan of Nixon but I couldn't say any of that about Nixon. At least as far a China goes. Vietnam, on the other hand ....
This cant be true (Score:1)
Everbody knows that the Americans will give you whatever data you want in exchange for quoting cheaper manufacturing costs, no need to hack anything, and if you give their schools money they will teach you everything they know too.
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Mess? (Score:1)
It used to be so easy, spies looked like this. [wikipedia.org]
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Or this [nocookie.net]
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My standard browser settings block this, and probably for a good reason. I'm not going to disable, somebody else test please.
Incompetence (Score:2, Troll)
It's one of the few Trump initiatives I actually agreed with but of course it has gone sideways because 1.) he's an incompetent boob and 2.) he's backed up by an army of incompetent bureaucrats from both parties. Of course it didn't work.
And since it's trump, of course it chased scientists away as a bonus on top of not solving the problem. Science make us feel bad about our ignorance, science bad!
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Is Trump still president?
prosecutions and new cases continue under the Biden administration.
Why are people still talking about Trump?
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Because Brandon is a ditz?
Re: Incompetence (Score:3)
Because initiatives start under an administration. Those weaknesses are often built from these roots.
Note he says it's one of the few ways he agreed with Trump in theory and as such we can conclude the issue is non-partisan. This is why Biden has continued it for now, bigger fish to fry.
I don't know if his comment was really that partisan but more as a matter of fact. Your comment seems more partisan which only highlights the divide. This highlights why we neither can have nice things and we are all afraid
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Your comment seems more partisan....
Wow... irony
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Wow... irony
I don't think you know what that word means.
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Sez you, but how can you miss it?
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In your case, I will go with Dunning-Kruger, since the person you replied to seems to have gotten it correct.
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Yeah, but he didn't, go with whatever makes you comfortable, it's not worth rehashing
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Wait, the previous president isn't completely absolved of all responsibility for things they set in motion the instant the office is handed over? That's not what the news says!
No, you're 100% correct, obviously. I also specifically pointed out that there is an army of bipartisan bureaucrats who are also responsible, but nothing other than blind allegiance to one party or another is acceptable...or even *comprehensible*...to people these days.
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Not just incompetent; malicious.
#resistance - would have been enough. No organization can function effectively when half the staff is trying undermine the objectives of the leadership. Doubly so when they are mindless zelots who will do anything to hurt leadership. All this dipshits probably thought it was just 'racism' or something until Biden asked them to do the same things or continued it because it really is the only sensible option - than suddenly its "ok" - see "remain in Mexico", covid travel ban
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just deal with 90% of the federal workforce being shown the door anytime the majority party changes.
That is a remarkably bad idea.
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You identify one of the biggest problems with all human societies, that of bureaucratic inertia and resistance to change even when it's genuinely necessary.
But one of the fundamental rules of trying to solve the problem is that solution must be less damaging than the problem. And solution you're offering is far more damaging, because state must function regardless of who is in control. Because most functions of the state are in fact apolitical, such as national defense, running the treasury, providing exper
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Because most functions of the state are in fact apolitical,
So you missed the point entirely, no they are not apolitical they have faux apolitical veneer for the most part but they absolutely are not apolitical, once the organization gets big enough even slightly plausible explanations can be offered for otherwise overt politicization of actions by people responsible for those functions, politics will be injected into those functions!
I think you wildly overestimate the harm of expecting most of the government to be shown the door when the majority party changes and
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I will simply reply by pointing out that you should get out of the borders of your nation and trying to live outside it, where bureaucracies are genuinely bad. Because your assumptions are based on massive miscalibration of your "where is the natural zero point of bureaucracy starting from scratch in terms of societal functionality". It's far lower than your claims require it to be.
In absense of ability or desire to do so, I recommend digging into literature about collapse of Soviet Union and what kind of r
Don't attribute maleasance as incompetence (Score:1)
Nope, the US government is not incompetent here. It knows very well that accusations against China are mostly falsified [axios.com], exaggerated [project-syndicate.org], and/or hypocritical [infoworld.com].
If you still have hard time believing people would just make up accusations against China, check out these immigration asylum frauds [npr.org].
The U.S. government and propaganda apparatus has had a proven history of deceiving the world, such as the Iraq WMD accusation. Today, China is the main economic and political rival of the USA. Nothing coming out of high p
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It seems to have worked though. A lot of people who think they'll get nailed fled, and those that remain are likely struggling to find new targets as targets are far less clueless about spying efforts that target them.
Most people forget that efficacy of most criminal proceedings isn't actually measured by number of convictions, but by their preventative effect. A good visible example of such preventative effect can be seen in comparing thevery and robbery style criminality in places like SF, where prosecuto
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I use a metric of "if my personal China troll responds on topic when I talk about China, it's a confirmation that their higher ups named this a subject that needs to be targeted as it's damaging to national interests of PRC".
Which by extension means I likely hit nail either on the head, or at least close enough to drive it home. Thanks for confirming me being right dear.
You expected something else? (Score:2)
Between the career bureaucrats and the bickering idiots on "Team Red" and "Team Blue" it's a wonder that anything useful gets done.
Re: You expected something else? (Score:2)
As it turns out nothing useful has been in the last decades for federal governance unless you count destabilising the middle East further which often again only betters China's position (after America left Afghanistan who do you think was one of the first to show up). I honestly wish I was wrong and would love for someone to chime in with significant federal policy changes that have occurred recently and lasted more than 10 years...
Americans have to face the fact of losing STEM .. (Score:5, Informative)
Re: Americans have to face the fact of losing STEM (Score:5, Informative)
It's a bit more complicated but it's late and I drank too much baijiu.
1) Chinese people rarely pick what they study. Instead their parents tell them what will be a good living.
2) Despite many advantages to develop STEM education in America most teachers of it simply suck. They never show it's beauty, splendour, or creativity. It's called STEM and not STEAM for this very reason. Yet if we look at some radical in mathematics like fractals and the Mandelbrot set we should clearly highlight a kind of artistic beauty. We don't and as such, STEM is seen is dull and boring when virtually nothing further could be from the truth (though perhaps many STEM jobs are but that's a different matter).
3) The race to the bottom line is universal though oddly enough tech development may be the area it ends up costing the most into negative value. Coding a spec requires understanding a special which as it turns out, ain't easy.
Btw, I am a teacher in China and while I primarily focus on English, I have taught math and science to varying ages. Right now we do STEAM at a kindergarten level with a huge focus on the English language skills. I would virtually never consider working in the American education system and my quality of life is much better after pursuing this life despite even pursing it in one of the poorest regions of China. Food for thought.
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Re: Americans have to face the fact of losing STEM (Score:5, Interesting)
There are a lot of reasons. Explaining this is not easy.
Generally speaking I have a much larger dispensable income. This allows me to treat myself and my girlfriend more often.
I live in a city and it's not unimaginable to consider buying a house in the most expensive/developed part of the city. When I was in Seattle, this was relatively unimaginable without some serious climbing of the corporate ladder.
While this is rare, I have found a really superb boss who commonly treats me to movies, food, and genuinely cares about my well-being because I am not seen as a dispensable part of the company. This leader treats most her employees well and they enjoy working for her because they often are included in many of these events but I am also a bit special as a foreign teacher because there are a lot of fewer of us in China and even fewer willing to commit to a live in my region, Qinghai.
I actually genuinely get to see superbly different cultures and how they can be rather happy with each other while constantly having my prejudices challenge. I never really thought about Buddhists monks having cell phones or eating in Muslim restaurants. I have learned that Hui Muslims are actually generally rather religiously relaxed while still having a certain devotedness. Many will smoke or drink and you can go to clubs with them. Other's drink on special occasions, to simply celebrate life. I get reminded of the deep tensions that have existed here between Hui and Tibetan while seeing that the Communist party effectively wishes to force those disputes to rest, finding unity between these different cultures. There are also Mongols, Salar, and a number of other ethnic groups. The expats here are mostly African and Pakistani. Pakistani food -- oh my god, it can be so amazingly delicious. I mention this for two reasons. Most people don't think China is very ethnically diverse but certain regions are really diverse and as an American I see a history of completely destroying native cultures till they are a bastardized remnant (like I have a bit of native American blood but know fuck all about the culture other than their gods were effectively banned and these traditions lost). This isn't to say the Communist Party hasn't set rules over these ethnic groups and I can find you people from each ethnic group that sees this as positive or negative but in general, I think when examined there are "fair" reasons for these changes (e.g. reducing the number of monks to keep families from essentially giving their kids to the monasteries which is a traditional practice -- I think kids should be kids and monastic life should be an independent choice as an adult).
The landscape is majestic in it's own way which relates to cultures. The Tibetan plateau is called "the roof of the world" and while I haven't yet traveled in Tibet as a province, the region I am in is traditionally Tibetan with the current Dalai Lama being born in a village which has been absorbed by the city I live in. The seasons here can be pretty "strong". The summers are heavenly and the winters frigid with a rather brief transition between them which are the windy seasons. The air quality does get kind of bad here in the winter with this leading it to be one of the worst places in China AQI but it's never felt as bad as I have heard Chengdu gets (where it can leave a taste in your mouth). The altitude plus too many cars is the reason it gets rough here in the winter. I enjoy these seasons for the most part though winter is a bit long, so I think this primarily is a positive to quality of life.
Likewise my work hours are pretty relaxed, with almost 3 full days off (one day I work for single evening class).
One of my last experiences in my small city before coming to China was being mugged by a group of 4 because I parked my car a bit far from the bar I was visiting. While I have had some periods of violence here in China, generally I feel far more safe. In fact, I have never really had much fear but after being mugged, I find myself with some rath
Re: Americans have to face the fact of losing STEM (Score:4, Interesting)
Oh I forgot to mention one other downside but this actually highlights a lot of the cultural tension between the west and China.
Fucking missionaries. They can fuck off and I have met rather zero converts from these efforts, though some accept the "work" that comes from missionaries including help selling traditional local goods or building projects. However, I have met others who right out hate them. They primarily focus on Tibetans because in general Buddhism can be more accepting of other faiths (for instance, I interacted with some monks in Washington state and asked them about following both the teachings of Jesus and Buddha to which they said "truth is truth" but in similar conversations with Christians, they rejected the need to understand anything about Buddhism). For ever "my God is jealous", I can give you a "my God is fucking pissed". These people actively make it harder for western foreigners to live here. I am inter-faith and I have been questioned by the local authorities about my faith to see if I have any abrasive nature towards local faiths or any desire to convert them. I know other really devote Christians that even hate these people because they can be "holier than though" Christians who don't drink and shame those who do. There is even an "international school" here that is pillared on the Christian faith but because of this abrasiveness, in recent years they have been banned from taking students that are Chinese passport/id holders.
This shit is disgusting... stop trying to push your ideals on others. Feel free to share but don't think you are better -- that shit can fuck off to the crusades. Likewise this "Christian agenda" is just a pretext to push democratic values and increase Tibetan separatism sentiment. Again they don't touch other ethnic groups and it's not like Hui don't have there own separatist sentiment.
These people effectively make it even harder for their to be peace and understanding between our cultures -- and I am happy to say I hope they burn in hell because that is what they are making on Earth, so let this be their "Heaven".
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What a fascinating read, I enjoyed everything you wrote very much. It is nuanced, authentic, and insightful.
Language barriers are underappreciated. I could not have gotten a fraction of what I did from your writing if you weren't a native English speaker.
My home planet got a teensy bit smaller today. I'd welcome more.
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Thank you. Your comment means a lot.
Language barriers are unappreciated. I hoped breaching this gap would be as easy as getting a girlfriend who would become my teacher but my girlfriend herself is rather westernized and while there are brief moments she understand the real need to understand the language, she is too lazy to really invest in teaching me (or has the patience). It's certainly a way I need to grow at times and while "need" Tibetan a fraction of the time in many ways I have done more direct lan
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Interesting the parallels. I was married to a Colombiana who is fluent in English but she never had the patience to help me learn Spanish. On the other hand, spending a few days with her relatives -- without her -- immersed in only Spanish is when I made huge progress. Brains are stubborn. Mine refused the pain of rewiring for a new language until it had no alternative. It was only when I had no chance at human contact in any language but Spanish that it started to sink in. Every pair is different but I'm g
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There was a really interesting video I saw people sharing a bit here about how education in one of the Northern European countries, I believe Sweden, doesn't give homework while effectively having the best test scores. Effectively their classes are virtually all hands on and labs.
While I agree with that most students cannot take this hardwork it's also a bit hard for me to relate because I was also homeschooled a lot where I had to do all the work on my own. This being said, I was good at STEM but I wasn't
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A lot of those Chinese and Indian STEM degrees are trashy or outright fake. The number of competent engineers is closer than those numbers suggest. And of the competent Chinese and Indian engineers, a lot of them move to the US or other Western countries, where they become our citizens while saving us the expense of schooling them - the best of all worlds from our perspective.
Politicians' kids do not go into STEM because people generally have similar skills to their parents, and politics requires a differen
Disclose (Score:2)
It's really simple. When you're required to disclose foreign relationships to get the grant or whatever and you instead knowingly omit your this information then you should pay the price. Crying about getting prosecuted for lying on applications doesn't jerk any tears from my eyes. The world isn't a big joke and you don't get to make stuff up and expect everyone to respect it.
Business as usual (Score:2)
'scope creep'
'war on ...'
'I'm okay, they're not okay.'
'tough on crime'
'blame and shame'
It's "climate of fear" as usual in the USA.
Intellectual property? (Score:3)
2/3rds of the authors are suspicious. (Score:2)
Are we supposed to think taxpayer funded research isn't an economic issue? Did nobody else noti
We will do even less now (Score:1)