industry & research
campusreview.com.au
Cool hand spook
Is China’s international
scientist recruitment program
just a cover for IP theft?
By Loren Smith
D
o you remember the American
corn seed heist of 2013?
More kernel than caper, Mo
Hailong and six other Chinese
nationals were accused of digging up
patented GMO corn seeds from Iowa
farms and, once concealed in boxes of
microwaveable popcorn, attempting to
smuggle them to China.
In 2016, Hailong was convicted and jailed
for three years, for conspiracy to steal trade
secrets. Some of his accomplices remain
at large.
While no connection was found
between the group and the Chinese
government, given the high level of
government involvement in Chinese
business, the case added to US anxieties
over China stealing its intellectual
property. These have yet to be allayed,
and indeed, have grown.
The latest occurrence to irk the
US government concerns China’s
2008-established Thousand Talents
program – a government recruitment
drive aimed mostly at attracting foreign-
trained Chinese scientists back to their
16
home country to accelerate innovation.
‘Basic qualifications’ for candidates
include “people under 55 years of age
who are willing to work in China on a
full-time basis, with full professorships
or the equivalent in prestigious foreign
universities and R&D institutes, or with
senior titles from well-known international
companies or financial institutions”.
Most of its roughly 7000 recruits have
been from the US. As the China-US
trade war has escalated, however, the
US government has become increasingly
suspicious of China’s motives in regard
to the program.
In a July 2018 Statement before the
House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence, the former chief executive
of Symantec, Michael A. Brown, testified
that “some of the technology transfer
mechanisms China engages in include
industrial espionage, cyber theft, forced
joint ventures in exchange for access
to the Chinese market, tracking of
open-source innovations, sponsoring
professional organisations to target
talent, and using Chinese foreign national
students by placing them in sensitive
areas of US research”.
“Viewed individually, the legal practices
may seem benign, but when viewed
in combination, and at the scale China
is employing them, the composite
picture illustrates the intent, design
and dedication of a regime focused on
technology transfer at a massive scale.”
He gave the example of American
Superconductor – a company that
provided the software code, or “brains”,
of wind turbines to China. China paid one
of its employees in exchange for access
to the company’s valuable code.
Although Brown didn’t explicitly refer
to the Thousand Talents program, a
June 2018 White House Office of Trade
and Manufacturing Policy report did, but
was cautious in its wording: it provided
that China poached top, homegrown
talent “who may [emphasis added]
hold intellectual property rights, key
technologies, or patents in technological
fields desired by China”.
The FBI was more blunt: “Chinese
talent programs pose a serious threat to
US businesses and universities through
economic espionage and theft of
intellectual property.”
Consequently, the US is now acting to
hinder these efforts. In May, President
Donald Trump announced that visas
issued to Chinese students in fields
including aviation, robotics and advanced
manufacturing would be reduced from
five years to one.
Universities, too, are responding.
In September, Texas Tech University's
vice-president for research, Joseph
Heppert, publicly instructed academics
“to be very circumspect about
participation in talent programs”.
He had reason for this warning: in
October, NBC News reported that
the FBI was investigating Keping Xie,
a gastroenterology professor at the
University of Texas, in relation to
espionage, and that Xie had taken part in
the Thousand Talents program.
A further worrisome aspect of the
program is its alleged links with the
Chinese military.
“The State Department and the FBI
believe elements of the Thousand Talents
program are closely allied to the Chinese
military,” Heppert stated.
Whether or not this is true,
collaboration between offshore Chinese
scientists, including in Australia, and
China’s military has been verified. A recent
report by the Australian Strategic Policy
Institute (ASPI) revealed that Australia
is the fourth most collaborative nation
with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
– China’s armed forces. On a per capita