China is stealing everything from nuclear weapons secrets to ... trends now
China is stealing everything from nuclear weapons secrets to genetically-modified seeds as part of an estimated $600billion-a-year theft of US technology, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Analysis of Department of Justice cases shows rampant and brazen plundering of US companies by Chinese spies who send trade secrets back home.
In at least two cases, Beijing has plotted to steal technology related to the production and detection of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
But shameless spooks have also pilfered medical secrets from a children's hospital in Ohio, as well as stealing seed technology from a farm in Iowa.
The results can be financially devastating, with one US energy company losing a whopping $550million after a Chinese firm stole its intellectual property.
FBI director Christopher Wray warned last week that Chinese spies were becoming 'more aggressive' than ever in its efforts to steal US trade secrets
In March, former Google software engineer Linwei Ding was indicted on charges of stealing AI trade secrets from the tech giant and passing them on to Chinese companies
Mo Hailong was convicted of digging up genetically-modified corn seeds in Iowa in a plot to send them back to China
The cases also reveal the ease with which Beijing is able to poach American technology, with one Chinese national downloading reams of documents from his US company-issued laptop onto his personal hard drive before saving it under a folder named 'ChinaGovernment'.
It comes as FBI director Christopher Wray warned last week that China was 'the defining threat of our generation' and is 'becoming more aggressive in their efforts to steal our secrets'.
DailyMail.com has found more than a dozen cases in which the US Government has charged Chinese entities or individuals with conspiring to steal American intellectual property on behalf of Beijing since 2018.
Our audit reveals:
The People's Republic of China has orchestrated attempts to steal billions of dollars worth of trade secrets from some of the biggest companies in the US, including Tesla, Google, Apple, and Coca-Cola But the shameless thievery filters through all levels of society, from Wall Street to Main Street, with small businesses and start ups also targeted No sector of society is safe, with agriculture, tech, manufacturing, medical and military fields all subject to Chinese espionage US-based Chinese nationals are often paid large sums by CCP-backed entities or provided grant funding in exchange for passing on company secretsThese findings are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg, with the FBI revealing last year that it had around 2,000 active investigations related to China's efforts to 'steal information'.
Meanwhile, there have been more than 1,200 cases of IP (intellectual property) theft lawsuits brought by US companies against Chinese entities since the turn of the century.
MilitaryThe most immediately disturbing cases involve the attempted theft of US military and defense secrets, including nuclear weapons technology.
As recently as February, Chenguang Gong, of San Jose, was arrested for allegedly stealing codes that could detect missile launches from space.
The 57-year-old Chinese native, who moved to the US around 1993 and became a citizen in 2011, 'sought to provide the People's Republic of China with information to aid its military', according to the US Attorney for the Central District of California.
Gong was released on a $2.5million bond following a hearing in San Jose and is facing 10 years in federal prison if convicted.
His prosecution came after the growing threat of Chinese espionage sparked the establishment of the Distruptive Technology Strike Force, co-led by the Departments of Justice and Commerce, to counter efforts by hostile nations to illicitly acquire sensitive US technology.
In May last year, it announced a slew of charges against alleged hostile actors, three of whom were Chinese nationals.
This included Liming Li, 64, of Rancho Cucamonga, California, who allegedly stole technological secrets belonging to two former US employers that could be used in the manufacturing of nuclear submarines and military aircraft, according to an indictment.
Li, who worked in various engineering and software development roles for Southern California companies, is accused of stealing software that was subject to US export controls for national security, nuclear nonproliferation and anti-terrorism reasons.
Court documents allege that Li tried to use the stolen technology to boost his own business and provide services to government entities and businesses in China.
The case, which was one of the first filed by the unified task force, also revealed the outlandish audacity of alleged malicious actors such as Li, who downloaded tranches of files onto a company-issued laptop named 'ChinaGovernment'.
Genetically-modified seeds to medical secrets
Li Chen was jailed for 30 months for illegally seizing research relating to the treatment of a range of pediatric medical conditions from Nationwide Children's Hospital's Research Institute
Chinese firms own 346,915 acres of American agricultural land as of December 2022
The US agricultural sector has also been on high alert to the threat of Chinese espionage since Mo Hailong was convicted in 2016 of digging up genetically-modified corn seeds in Iowa in a plot to send them back to China.
The FBI and the US Justice Department say cases of agricultural IP theft have been growing since Hailong was first discovered foraging in fields in 2011.
