“Russia Wants to Conquer the World – China Wants to Own the World”

On February 6th, the U.S. Attorney General delivered the keynote address at the DOJ’s China Initiative Conference in which he said,

“I recall the observation of one of my classmates in arguing that it was China that posed the greatest threat. He said, ‘Russia wants to conquer the world.  We can deal with that. China wants to own the world.  That is going to be more challenging to deal with.’ There was a certain truth in that.”

In this COVID-19 era, many may be concerned that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is not as focused as they had been on the China IP theft counter-offensive (China Initiative.)

But the theme of a recently published Politico article titled, “Inside DOJ’S nationwide effort to take on China: Federal prosecutors say the pandemic hasn’t hindered their efforts to crack down on Chinese espionage”, indicates that the U.S. Department of Justice has not let up.

Here’s the opening sentence, “The leadership of the Justice Department has put a bull’s-eye on the Chinese government, pushing prosecutors across the country to focus on investigations of Chinese state-backed efforts to steal intellectual property.”

And, yesterday the Utah U.S. Attorney, John W. Huber, reminded a law enforcement and private sector audience at a Salt Lake City Security Webinar, where he referred to testimony given by Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers in 2018:

“In many of the cases we see, China’s strategy is the same: Rob, Replicate, and Replace.  Rob the American company of its intellectual property, Replicate the technology, and Replace the American company in the Chinese market and, one day, in the global market.”

And Mr. Huber added, “About 80 percent of all federal economic espionage prosecutions have conduct that would benefit China and around 60 percent of federal trade secret theft cases have some nexus to China.

“The Department of Justice will respond to the economic aggression and other national security threats from the Chinese government.  United States Attorneys will hold accountable, and expose the tactics of those who would steal American innovation.”

An article published in Forbes a few days ago titled, “Watch Out for China Buying Spree, NATO Warns” raises concerns the West has in general about China’s intentions and actions during this global crises. Here’s a sample quote, “The pandemic has top officials on the security side of government warning that China might use this time to buy greater influence.”

It is encouraging to see that the U.S., and other nations, are keeping a close eye on China despite this pandemic.

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