The New Cold War?

Less than six months ago US Under Secretary of State Robert D Hormats said that one of the most important tasks in USChina relations was to define differences on intellectual property rights protection and find common solutions within the next six months On Feb 20 the White House released a strategy paper outlining an approach for protecting the trade secrets of US companies ldquoEmerging trends indicate that the pace of economic espionage and trade secret theft against US corporations is acceleratingrdquo said the report noting that ldquocyber intrusion activityrdquo targeting trade secrets in particular posed a threat to American businesses Last month the White House released a strategy paper about protecting US companies from trade secrets theft China appears on 31 pages of the paper PicAFP According to the strategy paper the US will put in place five measures to protect its trade secrets 1 Focusing diplomatic efforts to protect trade secrets overseas and applying diplomatic pressure 2 Helping private industry to protect trade secrets by supporting and promoting best practices 3 Enhancing domestic law enforcement operations 4 Improving domestic legislation 5 Promoting public awareness Although the White House has denied this strategy paper is aimed at China its content and timing of release indicate otherwise In the 141page paper China appears on 31 pages sometimes as often as 14 times per page An annex from the Department of Justice described 20 economic espionage and trade secret criminal cases between January 2009 and January 2013 17 of which involved China Regarding timing a week before the strategy paper was published President Barack Obama released an executive order on ldquoImproving Critical Infrastructure Securityrdquo The day before US cyber security firm Mandiant Corp had published a 74page report tracing cyber attacks on US companies to China And recently several mainstream newspapers including the New York Times and the Washington Post claimed to have been attacked by Chinese hackers Earlier Douglas H Paal a former Director of Asian Affairs of the US National Security Council and present vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said last year the US House of Representatives had held hearings about the ongoing cyber attacks and had introduced draft legislation In his February 2013 State of the Union address President Obama said that ldquothe rapidly growing threat from cyberattacksrdquo was a top priority Cold War mentality and ulterior motives The White House strategy paper suggested strengthening legislation by increasing the maximum statutory maximum for economic espionage from 15 years in prison to 20 years The paper also recommended increasing sentencing guidelines for the theft of trade secrets including ldquotrade secrets transferred or attempted to be transferred abroadrdquo China and the US have been fighting about industrial espionage and intellectual property for a long time now So why is the US making these highprofile moves now Tao Jingzhou managing partner for the Asian practice of US law firm Dechert said ldquoThe technological leadership of the United States ensures its position as a world leader Its companies are the driving force behind its technological innovation Protecting their industrial and technological secrets is protecting the USrsquos most fundamental interestsrdquo There are striking similarities in the Department of Justicersquos 17 economic espionage and trade secret cases involving China The protagonists are Chinese nationals or ethnic Chinese engineers and researchers who completed their master or doctoral degrees in prestigious US colleges They joined large US companies and worked for years to reach senior level positions They then used these positions to steal trade secrets contained in drawings designs software code and chemical formulas to use as bargaining chips to obtain new jobs create their own companies or obtain teaching tenures at Chinese universities The one who spent the longest time working in a US company is Dongfan Chung a former Boeing engineer He was convicted of charges of economic espionage and acting as an illegal agent of the Peoplersquos Republic of China stealing technology and trade secrets including information related to the Space Shuttle program and the Delta IV rocket between 1979 and 2006 In 2010 at age 74 Chung was sentenced to 15 years in jail According to the US Department of Justice industries with a high incidence of espionage are car manufacturing chemical industry and electronics as well as the IT sector Companies targeted by economic espionage included the Ford Motor Company General Motors DuPont Valspar Motorola and the CME Group Every time an espionage case comes to light it always triggers heated discussions in the US media Chinarsquos Foreign Ministry has on several occasions refuted accusations of Chinese participation in economic espionage saying the accusations were ldquofabricated and with ulterior motivesrdquo China has asked the US to abandon its Cold War mentality respect objective facts and stop these groundless accusations US Trade Representative Ron Kirk has openly stated that the problem of tradesecret theft in China was a factor in the decision by some US companies to move operations back to the US ldquoYou know itrsquos one thing to accept a certain level of copyright knockoffs but if yoursquore going to take our core technology then wersquore better off being in our home countryrdquo Kirk told Reuters A copying country At a more macro level Robert D Hormats says Chinarsquos accession to the World Trade Organisation WTO has been good for China and for the world mdash but just as China insists that others abide by WTO rules doing so is also in Beijingrsquos interests But one of its difficulties he says is for China to enforce the rules of the global economy ldquoIf some of the measures China takes are deemed to be against the interests of foreign affiliates in China this will have a negative impact on China and its open trade systemrdquo Douglas H Paal says that the US has always had intellectual property issues with emerging countries ldquoHowever there is a greater problem with China There is a long way to go in intellectual property protection and incentives as well as combating infringementrdquo he says So how to resolve the ChinaUS dispute on this issue US Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Jose W Fernandez said ldquoIt is important that we engage in meaningful dialogue with China so that both sides can agree on common standardsrdquo Tao Jingzhou believes the Chinese government will probably have to enforce sanctions on the theft of trade secrets and most possibly link intellectual property protection to local officialsrsquo political performance ldquoChinaUS frictions on the theft of intellectual property have only just begun unfolding Chinawill be forced to become a truly innovative country instead ofa copying countryrdquo u00a0