This has allowed U.S. companies such as Micron Technologies to sue Chinese companies in federal court for the Chinese companies theft of U.S. IP. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), an Executive Branch committee chaired by the Department of Treasury, was statutorily created to address potential risks to U.S. national security resulting from foreign acquisitions or mergers with U.S. companies. Such crimes are not limited to the United States and, with the aid of Internet like-minded hate groups, can reach across borders. Espionage and counterespionage have been essential tools of statecraft for centuries, of course, and U.S. and Chinese intelligence agencies have been battling one another for decades. In recent years, prolific use of social media by FTOs has greatly enhanced their ability to disseminate messages. Finally, the investments we make at home to maintain Americas technological edge are ultimately going to be more important than the steps we take to stop Chinas theft of American IP. It is probably not a coincidence that FBI also arrested Mr. Chaoqun Ji, a PRC national in Chicago, on espionage related charges. traditional espionage activity includes foreign government CI-21 proposes significant changes in the way the United States government approaches, and organizes itself to meet, the threat of foreign espionage and intelligence gathering. However, no group has been as successful at drawing people into its perverse ideology as ISIS, which has proven dangerously competent at employing such tools. Regardless, it seems likely that China will continue to deploy hacking as a tool of gaining U.S. IP as U.S. policy developments like export control reform and new restrictions on Chinese investment in the U.S. restrict Chinas ability to legally and overtly acquire its desired technologies. The Dragon's Game: A Deep Dive into China's Espionage Operations in the PLA collection capabilities include military attachs conducting overt and clandestine collection and collectors under other government and commercial covers. But targeted sanctions against Chinese entities engaged in economic espionage or benefiting from stolen U.S. IP would send a powerful deterrent against such activities. Our adversaries are continuously trying to undermine our country, whether it is election season or not. As the threat to harm the United States and U.S. interests evolves, we must adapt and confront these challenges, relying heavily on the strength of our federal, state, local, and international partnerships. Freeway overpasses shuddered and collapsed, swallowing cars like a sandpit. China is pursuing a whole-of-society approach to its technological capabilities that includes purchasing innovative companies through overseas investments, requiring western companies to transfer cutting edge technologies to China as a condition of market access, providing vast state resources to finance domestic technological development, and financing training for top Chinese students and researchers overseas and paying a hefty premium to attract talent back to China. In addition to these Executive Branch actions, companies and Congress have played an important role in Americas response. The United States generally distinguishes between Chinese economic espionage intended to provide Chinese companies with a commercial advantage and traditional espionage intended to obtain information about the U.S. government, U.S. military capabilities, and other sensitive government and government-related information. Spies from 20 foreign intelligence agencies, including Nato allies such as France and Germany, are attempting to steal Britain's most sensitive secrets. Department of Justice indictments and private sector reports in recent years have accused Chinese hackers of breaking into the corporate networks of U.S. and western companies including defense contractors, non-profits, semiconductor firms, healthcare companies, industrial manufacturers, aerospace companies, media companies, solar companies, and electronics companies, among others. Chinas defense industry is working to develop a comparable engine. The reason for this is because Snowden did not provide information he obtained to a foreign government. Al Qaeda maintains its desire for large-scale, spectacular attacks. China needs to understand that if it tries to steal U.S. technology, it will not be able to benefit from it. This report presents initial findings from analysis of 274 documented cases of Chinese worldwide espionage since the year 2000. 3488, enacted October 11, 1996 deals with industrial espionage (e.g., the theft or misappropriation of a trade secret and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act) and four other areas of action that Congress deemed appropriate and the United States Sentencing Commission reports regarding encryption or . The recent attacks in Texas and California underscore the continued threat posed by domestic violent extremists and perpetrators of hate crimes. Beginning under President Obama and continuing under President Trump, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has launched programs to encourage the private sector to harden defenses. Almost two years ago, I established the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) to identify and counteract malign foreign influence operations targeting the United States. But China is by far the most active practitioner of economic espionage today. The term includes foreign intelligence and security services, international terrorists, Failure to report may result in disciplinary action. The only notable area in which China has shown minimal advancement has been in applying sophisticated espionage tradecraft. Foreign espionage strikes at the heart of U.S. national security, impacting political, military and economic arenas. FIRRMA provides important new tools for the U.S. government to screen potential foreign investments in the U.S. for national security risks. But the FBI is doing its part by providing actionable intelligence to better enable the private sector to address abuse of their platforms by foreign actors. This initiative is a welcome step and I commend the Justice Department and the National Security Division for launching it. The FITF is also working with international partners to exchange intelligence and strategies for combating what is a shared threat. Second, Congress should study ways to expand prohibitions on the import into the U.S. of items made with stolen U.S. IP, and the Trump Administration should work with allies to keep such products out of foreign markets. I also want to offer brief remarks on the second, partly overlapping type of unconventional Chinese espionage that merits a forceful U.S. response: espionage against U.S. colleges and universities. These types of activities represent an assault against core American values in a bid to stifle legitimate and necessary debate about China. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. While continued counterterrorism pressure has degraded the groups Afghanistan-Pakistan senior leadership, in the near term, al Qaeda is more likely to focus on building its international affiliates and supporting small-scale, readily achievable attacks in key regions such as east and west Africa. Copyright 2023 ALM Global, LLC. Updated Foreign Assistance Standardized Program Structure and I left the Members with what I thought was an ominous warning: Do something about this now or youll be calling me back in 20 years screaming: My God, how did this happen? Well, they never called me back, but if recent FBI arrests are any indication, the problem has gotten worse a lot worse. The term APT is commonly used in reference to the cyber threat posed by foreign intelligence services, or hackers working on behalf of such entities, but is not limited just to this and can equally be applied to other threat actors such as organized crime syndicates and those involved in traditional espionage. New Delhi has distanced itself from a controversial and unequal deal between Adani Power and the Bangladesh Power Development Board. Illegal downloads. The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. Several high-level conclusions can be drawn from the cases representing the last 20 years of Chinese espionage operations. Espionage activities involving the Peoples Liberation Army reflect primarily illegal arms or military technology transfers where the PLA was known, or believed to be the end user for example, the PLA was assumed the ultimate end user or customer if a TOW anti-tank system (tube-launched, optically tracked, wireless-guided weapon system) was being illegally shipped to China. As part of this process, the FBI provides input and analysis to the National Intelligence Council within eight days of a CFIUS filing and a risk assessment to the Department of Justice within 30 days of a CFIUS filing. An adversary uses technical countermeasures to block a previously undisclosed or classified U.S. intercept technology. Edward Fishman. Nearly half of Chinas espionage efforts target U.S. military and space technologies. DOJ has also faced repeated setbacks in its prosecution in the Eastern District of Virginia of Bijan Rafiekian, former business partner of Trumps National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, accused of acting as an illegal agent of the Turkish government in an effort to obtain the extradition of a Turkish dissident. Based on an actual case, the video illustrates how one company was targeted by foreign actors and what the FBI did to help. In addition to FTOs, domestic violent extremists collectively pose a steady threat of violence and economic harm to the United States. First, espionage is a segment of the larger intelligence cycle, which in turn describes the sets of activities designed to produce the information necessary for policymakers' decision-making. This is a significant transformation from the terrorist threat our nation faced a decade ago. Journalists, military veterans, and judicial figures are being targeted by foreign espionage agencies at "unprecedented" levels, with the country's intelligence chief revealing a "hive of spies . 19 This cycle generally involves five steps: tasking, collection, processing and evaluating, analysis and production, and feedback. It can involve the analysis of diplomatic reports, publications, statistics, and broadcasts, as well as spying, a clandestine activity carried out by an individual or individuals working under secret identity to gather classified information on behalf of another entity or nation. Analysis reveals several other interesting data points on the application of tradecraft. A number of cyber security firms reported a drop in suspected China-linked attacks in the year following the agreement, and in late 2016 the CEO of the CrowdStrike cybersecurity firm called the change in Chinas behavior the biggest success weve had in this arena in 30 years. However, Justice Department indictments and U.S. government reports indicate that there has been a substantial uptick in Chinese hacking over the past year, and so it remains unclear how much the agreement has or will affect Chinese behavior over the long-term.