The employee said regulators asked for
blueprints of components the company was
trying to prevent its Chinese partner from seeing
but ignored other parts of the vehicle.
“LOCALIZING TECHNOLOGY”
For decades, the ruling party has rewarded
businesspeople, academics and others who
“localize technology” — a euphemism for
unauthorized copying of foreign know-how —
with promotions, research grants, money and
public praise.
Security researchers say the government
operates a network of research institutes and
business parks to turn stolen technology into
commercial products.
In 2013, three Chinese scientists at New York
University were charged with sending U.S.
taxpayer-financed research on magnetic
resonance imaging to a Chinese government-
run institute.
Other Chinese-born researchers in the United
States have been charged with stealing
chemical, seed, turbine and other technologies.
Prosecutors say some had partners waiting in
China to turn them into products.
OUTRIGHT THEFT
American prosecutors say when all else fails,
top-level state companies steal foreign secrets.
Pangang Group, a steelmaker owned by China’s
Cabinet, was indicted in 2014 on U.S. charges
it paid industrial spies to steal a process from
DuPont for making titanium dioxide, a white
pigment widely used in toothpaste, Oreo
cookies and other products.