Commercial Espionage and China

An article in The New York Times’s China edition explores the vast scope of Chinese commercial espionage following the arrest of three New York University researchers who are accused of accepting bribes to share secret research findings with Chinese government and industry entities. (The researchers were studying magnetic-resonance imaging technology on a National Institutes of Health-funded grant.) The article quotes a May report from The Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, which states, “National industrial policy goals in China encourage IP theft, and an extraordinary number of Chinese in business and government entities are engaged in this practice.” The article also quotes China’s Commerce Ministry, which denies being weak on the enforcement of intellectual property rights.