A New Kind of Spy: How China Obtains American Technological Secrets | Hacker News Reader

A New Kind of Spy: How China Obtains American Technological Secrets

newyorker.com

73 pointsirtefa11 comments

It's a great article. And for me, terrifying, in a few ways.

For one, it seems to be a great example of how nationalism can trump other ideals. And secondly, because spycraft seems to go along with warfare.

The scariest part of this is that national and even potentially ethnic/racial competition seems to still be a (secret?) part of many worldviews. As an extension of an often unvoiced but very prevalent type of lingering Social Darwinism.

>“I don’t know what I can do for the country,” he wrote in a letter to Chen. “Being proud of the achievements by the people’s efforts in the Motherland, I am regretful for not contributing anything.”

This is a virtuous sentiment, I'm not sure how it could not be. Chung never wanted to leave the mainland because he hated it or its people, politics saw to that. Chung never wanted to leave Taiwan because he hated Taiwan or its people, economics saw to that. He built a life in America, and he wanted a part in exporting the nation's knowledge and prosperity to the people he left behind who were rebuilding their homeland after nearly half a century of strife.

As the article stated, he was hardly an ultranationalist. He was leery of borders and nations. He perceived that China was improving by the metrics that mattered to him, and he wanted to help it along.

Bad for the US? Absolutely. Should he have been stopped? Absolutely, from my perspective.

So every developing nation steals technology, it's how they grow, the US did the same to the UK during the industrial revolution which is how the US got most of their textile technology. Most developed nations know this and somewhat look the other way while a nation is developing.

The modern problem is that China has hit the cusp of no longer being developing but rather is developed. Which changes the dynamic, the relationship and the expectations for what is allowed and how procedures will go. China seems to be trying to have their cake and eat it too though, they pad their numbers to look good but then decry when they are treated as if those are facts and they are held to a higher standard. It's like a middle aged man asking for leniency because "boys will be boys".

>the US did the same to the UK during the industrial revolution

The US did it to China during that period too...in some cases using European middlemen.

I’m sure the US is still conducting industrial espionage, it’s less visible than openly stealing but in essence the same. You should expect to get robbed when producing in China or using US software.

Why are most commenters defending the stealing of trade secrets and classified information? Just focusing on the trade secret part, Would you be happy if you had a company and your employee helped their brother set up a competing company by giving them all your IP?

Depends on your point of view.

Most people don't own companies and never will.

The guy who parks his Porsche in front of the office makes a few million less, but globally people have cheaper access to new technologies to make their lives better.

Big shrug from Joe in the warehouse or Steve the depressed code monkey.

I don't think a great many people care that much unless you make it about nationalism.

Article is from April 28, 2014.

Were there no Japanese spies in the 1930's with similar backgrounds and motivations? What's so new about it?

Doesn't sound like he did anything wrong. Helping to spread technical knowledge around the world is a praise worthy act even if the USA considers it illegal.

(2014)

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