The United States has often accused the government of China of attempting unlawfully to acquire U.S. military technology and classified information as well as trade secrets of U.S. companies in order to support China's long-term military and commercial development. Chinese government agencies and affiliated personnel have been accused of using a number of methods to obtain U.S. technology (using U.S. law to avoid prosecution), including espionage, exploitation of commercial entities, and a network of scientific, academic and business contacts. Prominent espionage cases include Larry Wu-tai Chin, Katrina Leung, Gwo-Bao Min, Chi Mak and Peter Lee. The Ministry of State Security (MSS) maintains a bureau dedicated to espionage against the United States, the United States Bureau.
In addition to traditional espionage, China partners civilian-in-name Chinese companies with American businesses to acquire technology and economic data and uses cyber spying to penetrate the computer networks of U.S. businesses and government agencies, such as the 2009 Operation Aurora and the 2015 Office of Personnel Management data breach. U.S. law enforcement officials have identified China as the most active foreign power involved in the illegal acquisition of American technology.
Methods
China has used a variety of methods to gather intelligence in the United States. Individuals attempt to obtain targeted information from open sources such as libraries, research institutions and unclassified databases. Chinese travelers are recruited to carry out specific intelligence activities, and China debriefs returnees from exchange programs, trade missions and scientific-cooperation programs. Chinese citizens may be coerced to cooperate.
Much technology acquisition occurs through commerce and commercial regulations. The regulatory and commercial environment in China pressures American and other foreign companies to transfer technology, capital and manufacturing expertise, especially in defense-related or dual-use industries such as computers, to their Chinese partners as part of doing business in China's huge, lucrative markets. Chinese agents purchase high-tech equipment through front organizations in Hong Kong. China also uses state-run firms to purchase American companies with access to the targeted technology.
China also accesses foreign technology through industrial espionage, with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials rating China's industrial-espionage and theft operations as the leading threat to U.S. technological security. In 2021, Acting NCSC Director Michael Orlando estimated that China stole between $200 billion and $600 billion worth of American intellectual property every year. Between October 2002 and January 2003 five Chinese businessmen were accused of illegally shipping equipment and trade secrets from California to China, and U.S. officials prevented a Chinese man from shipping a new, high-speed computer used in classified projects (including nuclear-weapons development) from Sandia National Laboratories.
In July 2020, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray called China the "greatest long-term threat" to the United States. He said that "the FBI is now opening a new China-related counterintelligence case every 10 hours. Of the nearly 5,000 active counterintelligence cases currently under way across the country, almost half are related to China." For example, Eric Swalwell, who serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, was in the past targeted by a Chinese woman believed to be a clandestine officer of China's Ministry of State Security. The alleged Chinese spy later participated in fundraising for Swalwell's 2014 congressional election bid and helped place an intern inside Swalwell's congressional office. FBI gave Swalwell a "defensive briefing" in 2015, informing him that woman was a suspected Chinese agent.