Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-06-17)

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BloombergBusinessweek June 17, 2019

standards thathaveledtoairpollutionreductionsof21%to

42% in China’smostpopulousareas.Theresultshaveborne

fruit in the U.S.,too.Twentyyearsagoscientistsforecastthat

air pollutionfromChina,blowingacrossthePacific,would

cause Californiatoexceeditsclean-airstandardsby2025.Now

that won’t happen,saysSmith,whowasgrantedanhonorary

professorshipatTsinghuaUniversitythisspring.

Wu’s work,likea lotoftheacademicresearchnowindan-

gerofbeingstifled,isn’taboutdevelopingpatentabledrugs.

Themissionis toreduceriskandsavelivesbydiscoveringthe

causesofcancer.Preventionisn’ta product.It isn’tsalable.

Orstealable.

S

uspicionofChinesescientistsatMDAndersonbegan

to takerootaround2014.Theyearbefore,a Chinese

researcherattheMedicalCollegeofWisconsinin

Milwaukee hadbeenarrestedonfederalchargesofeconomic

espionage; prosecutorssaidhestolethreevialsofa cancerdrug

in early-stagelabtesting.(Hepleadedguiltytothefarlesser

chargeofaccessinga computerwithoutauthorizationandwas

sentencedtotimeserved,fouranda halfmonths.)Atthetime,

MDAndersonwaspushingtocommercializebasicresearchinto

cancer drugs;todaythecenterhasalliancesandpartnerships

with almostthreedozenpharmaceuticalmakersandotherpri-

vate companies.Securitywasenhanced.Foreignguestswere

kept on a shortleash.

ThechainofeventsthatultimatelyledtoWu’sdeparture

beganinthesummerof2017,whentheFBInotifiedthecancer

centerit wasinvestigating“thepossibletheftofMDAnderson

researchand proprietary information.” (MDAnderson

declinedtospeakabouttheFBIinvestigationexcepttosayit

didnotreporttheftofintellectualpropertytothebureau.)A

federalgrandjuryfollowedupwitha subpoenaforfiveyears

ofemailsfromsomeMDAndersonemployees.A fewmonths

later, the centergutteditsinternationalresearchprogramand

put what wasleftofitscollaborative-projectarmundera busi-

ness department.Boglerandformercolleagueswithin the

center say thefocusthenshiftedawayfromresearchcollab-

orations andtowardbusinessopportunities.MDAnderson

spokeswomanBrettePeytonsaidinanemailthatthecenter’s

globalprogramshaven’tchanged.

InNovember 2017 theFBIaskedformoreinformation.

This time, nosubpoenafollowed.Instead,thecancercenter’s

president, PeterPisters—thenonthejobforbarelya month—

signed a voluntaryagreementallowingtheFBItosearchthe

network accountsofwhata separatedocumentindicatedwere

23 employees“foranypurpose... atanytime,foranylength

of time, andatanylocation.”Didallofthenetworkaccounts

handed overtotheFBIbelongtoChineseorChineseAmerican

scientists? MDAnderson refuses to say.

“BecauseMDAnderson was cooperating with the FBI’s

national security investigation, and because the FBI had the

power to issue another subpoena, we chose to voluntarily pro-

vide the requested emails,” Peyton said.

In Wray’s telling, China’s challenge to the U.S. today is unlike

any this nation has faced. Whereas the Cold War was fought by

armies and governments, the contest is being waged, on China’s

side,bythe“wholeofsociety,”theFBIdirectorsaid,andthe

U.S.needsitsownwhole-of-societyresponse.Butwhatdoes

thatlooklikeina societywithmorethan 5 million citizens of

Chinesedescent,manyofwhomworkintheveryscienceand

technologyfieldssaidtobeunderassault?

TheFBIis tellingcompanies,universities,hospitals—anyone

with intellectual property at stake—to take special precautions

when dealing with Chinese business partners and employees

who might be what Wray calls “nontraditional” information

collectors. U.S. Department of Justice officials are doing road

shows to brief local governments, companies, and journalists

about China’s perfidy. Visas for Chinese students and research-

ers are being curtailed, and more Chinese engineers and busi-

nesspeople, especially in the tech sector, are being detained at

U.S. airports while border agents inspect and image their dig-

ital devices. The FBI is pursuing economic espionage investi-

gations “that almost invariably lead back to China” in almost

every one of its 56 field offices, Wray said.

They’ve made some big arrests. Last year the agency lured

an alleged spymaster affiliated with China’s Ministry of State

Security to Belgium, where he was arrested and extradited

to the U.S. to face espionage charges. The suspected agent,

named Yanjun Xu, allegedly disguised himself as an academic

and used LinkedIn to entice a Chinese American engineer at GE

Aviation in Cincinnati to come to China to give a presentation on

composite materials for the aerospace industry. The engineer

brought along some of his employer’s confidential documents.

Xu pleaded not guilty in October and remains in custody in

Ohio awaiting trial. The GE Aviation employee wasn’t charged.

Federal agents have also made an alarming number of spy

arrests that proved unwarranted. From 1997 to 2009, 17%

ofdefendantsindictedundertheU.S.EconomicEspionage

ActhadChinesenames.From 2009 to2015,thatratetri-

pled,to52%,accordingtoa December2018 article in the

Cardozo Law Review. As the number of cases soared, evi-

dence of actual espionage lagged behind. One in five of

the Chinese-named defendants was never found guilty of

espionage or any other serious crime in the cases between

1997 and 2015—almost twice the rate of wrongful accusa-

tions among non-Chinese defendants. The disparity, wrote

the paper’s author, Andrew Kim, a visiting scholar at South

Texas College of Law at Houston, reflects an apparent bias

among federal agents and prosecutors who assume ethnic

The contest is being waged, on China’s side, by the “whole of society,”

the FBI director said, and the U.S. needs its own whole-of-society response