US faces 'unprecedented threat' from China on tech takeover

China’s “Thousand Talents” programme to tap into its citizens educated or employed in the US is a key part of multi-pronged efforts to transfer, replicate and eventually overtake US military and commercial technology, according to American intelligence officials.
 
The programme, begun in 2008, is far from secret. But its unadvertised goal is “to facilitate the legal and illicit transfer of US technology, intellectual property and know-how” to China, according to an unclassified analysis by the National Intelligence Council, the branch of US intelligence that assesses long-term trends.
 
The programme was highlighted Thursday to House Armed Services Committee members as Pentagon and intelligence officials outlined what they said was an aggressive, 10-part Chinese “toolkit for foreign technology acquisition.”

 

The National Intelligence Council’s analysis, produced in April, described the Thousand Talents Plan as “China’s flagship talent programme and probably the largest in terms of funding.” The programme also was cited in a combative White House report posted Tuesday titled “How China’s Economic Aggression Threatens the Technologies and Intellectual Property of the United States and the World”.
 
Breakdown of Recruits

The assessment discussed Thursday numbered the current of pool Thousand Talents recruits at 2,629 — 44 per cent of whom specialise in medicine, life or health sciences, 22 per cent in applied industrial technologies, 8 per cent in computer sciences and 6 per cent each in aviation/aerospace and astronomy. Smaller per centages possessed US-garnered expertise in economics, finance and mathematics.

 
American military and intelligence officials have long warned that China threatens the nation’s security as well as its economy. The warnings have escalated under President Donald Trump, whose moves to impose tariffs on China and Beijing’s counter-moves have heightened fears of a trade war.
 
The US still is seeking a level of cooperation with China, including its help in maintaining sanctions to pressure North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday that he’s travelling to China next week.
 
‘Unprecedented threat’
 
The Pentagon “is facing an unprecedented threat to its technological and industrial base,” as the US’s “open society” has “offered China and others access to the same technology and information that is crucial to the success of our future war-fighting capabilities,” Michael Griffin, under secretary for research and engineering, testified at Thursday’s hearing.

 
“We have seen the Chinese target top talent in American universities and research labs of the private sector, including defense contractors and the US government,” he said. The solution must include strengthening American counterintelligence capabilities and elevating the private sector’s focus on security, he added.
 
Tony Schinella, the national intelligence officer for military issues, testified that in addition to using the Thousand Talents programme, “Beijing also has employed Western-trained returnees to implement important changes in its science, engineering, and math curricula that foster greater creativity and applied skills at China’s top-tier universities.”
 
Another tool to gain access to US technology is “joint ventures, mergers, and acquisitions,” he said. “Tech transfer to China is occurring in part through increased levels in investment and acquisitions of US companies, which hit a record level in 2016 before dropping somewhat in 2017 and again in the first half of 2018.”

 
China’s aggregate investment in American technology over the past decade, from 2007 to 2017, totalled approximately $40 billion and was about $5.3 billion last year, he said.