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How China Stole an Entire Airplane

In April 2018, a Chinese intelligence agent named Xu Yanjun arrived in Belgium. He was there for a clandestine meeting with a GE engineer he believed would sell him confidential aircraft technology belonging to GE Aviation. Instead, Xu was met by a team of Belgian police and FBI agents, put into handcuffs, and escorted to a Belgian prison. His arrest, and a subsequent investigation, uncovered one of the most audacious industrial espionage schemes ever conducted by China.

Xu, a deputy division director in the Chinese spy agency JSSD, was allegedly one of the leaders of a scheme to steal information from U.S. and international firms working with the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC). The Chinese company was already partnering with western firms to design and build a new narrow-body jet, the C919. But with the likely approval of COMAC, China’s spy agency decided to quietly steal the western firms’ respective technologies.

An indictment filed in California on October 25, 2018, charged 10 individuals with conspiring to steal aerospace trade secrets from 13 western companies, most of them U.S.-based. The indictment also revealed that French aerospace manufacturer Safran was infiltrated when employees in its Suzhou, China, office inserted malware into the Safran computer network. This malware gave Chinese agents access to Safran’s confidential files.

According to a detailed report by the U.S. cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, the espionage operation was run by China’s Jiangsu State Security Division (JSSD). Chinese spies recruited engineers at the partner firms either through appeals to misplaced Chinese patriotism, or bribes, or both. One Chinese agent indicted in October 2018 was a GE engineer named Zhang Zhang-Gui. Zhang had traveled to China and given a lecture to a group of Chinese aerospace engineers. At the talk, he allegedly disclosed confidential GE information for a payment of just $3,500. Zhang had arranged the meeting after telling work colleagues he would be attending a family wedding. He later admitted to the FBI that there was no wedding.

What did COMAC gain from its overall espionage operation? Even with help from its western partners, COMAC has experienced significant difficulties in developing the C919 to a point where it could match the performance of major competitors like Boeing and Airbus. Crowdstrike believes that JSSD’s hacking of the various western aerospace companies allowed COMAC to trim “several years (and potentially billions of dollars) off of its development time.”


The C919 story demonstrates the pitfalls of western companies partnering with Chinese firms. Beijing has repeatedly pledged to halt its industrial espionage campaigns. But it has never actually kept its promises.

China stands alone in the world in the way it engages in broad-based, pervasive industrial espionage through the use of human sources, cyber-intrusion, and outright theft across a countless number of industries. According to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, China’s IP theft costs the US between $225 billion and $600 billion each year. And Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has told this author that China’s repeated hacking of U.S. firms represents “the largest case of theft in the history of the world.”

If there is a thief in your neighborhood who sometimes pays for goods, you don’t try to do more business with him. Until China demonstrates a fundamental strategic change and a willingness to live by globally accepted rules for corporate and intellectual property, the U.S. should continue the tariffs imposed in 2018 by the Trump administration. Until then, the United States should do less business with China, not more.

https://www.industryweek.com/the-economy/article/21118569/how-china-stole-an-entire-airplane

China systematically stealing technology is quite the norm. American universities, labs and companies naively fell for 'collaborating' and 'labor savings' and in the process lost a a lot precious intellectual property and secrets. The Chinese companies don't even make a secret of such theft.

It is one thing for Chinese students to come here, study, do research then go back and continue their research - which many do. But outright theft from companies and high tech labs has been the basis of Chinese development for a while and it is high time the Chinese government is taken to task for such behavior.
 
China launches it's own Taikonauts into space. They don't hitch a ride on a Russian rocket.

But a Soviet spaceship design. So which one is which?


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China systematically stealing technology is quite the norm. American universities, labs and companies naively fell for 'collaborating' and 'labor savings' and in the process lost a a lot precious intellectual property and secrets. The Chinese companies don't even make a secret of such theft.

It is one thing for Chinese students to come here, study, do research then go back and continue their research - which many do. But outright theft from companies and high tech labs has been the basis of Chinese development for a while and it is high time the Chinese government is taken to task for such behavior.

The only solution to this is full economic, financial, technological sanctions on China. Then we will see how fast China grows without American help. They rely on America for everything. EVERYTHING.

If the CCP retaliates to full sanctions with military aggression, then the US Navy should impose a naval blockade of China. Let’s see how long China can last without access to the US market, US dollar, US technology, US universities and research labs, free passage in the high seas.
 
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The only solution to this is full economic, financial, technological sanctions on China. Then we will see how fast China grows without American help. They rely on America for everything. EVERYTHING.

If the CCP retaliates to full sanctions with military aggression, then the US Navy should impose a naval blockade of China. Let’s see how long China can last without access to the US market, US dollar, US technology, US universities and research labs, free passage in the high seas.
Help China...
You America are truly shameless. Please, stop helping us.
 
Your not 100% independent in semiconductor manufacturing either. You have an edge because of the sheer number of foreign-origin residents working in STEM fields in the US. Open up any half-decent STEM faculty page and you'll see a lot of Chang's, Chow's, Shapiro's and Smirnov's.
That is not our problem, but yours. You speak as if the entire American semicon industry is filled with foreigners, as in non-Americans. I got bad news for you: Wrong. I can say that because unlike most here, I am actually in the semicon industry. I work with Americans of all ethnic backgrounds, non citizens on work VISAs from China, India, and even a few Iranians.

If the US created an environment that attracts talented people from all over the world, you got no one to blame but whatever country you are living in that do not have comparable business and social environments. Race got nothing to do with this as I have seen foreigners got fired for incompetence as well as non-whites promoted ahead of their American peers. Our system is not perfect but it is far better than the rest of the world. You do not like it? Tough shit.
 
News from 2018 with Beijing response.

Beijing baffled by allegations involving alleged Chinese spy jailed in U.S.
Yanjun Xu was extradited from Belgium to U.S. to face economic espionage charges

The Associated Press · Posted: Oct 11, 2018 2:36 PM ET | Last Updated: October 12, 2018

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Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, seen earlier this year, said Thursday there was no merit to the indictment and asked that Yanju Xu be treated fairly under the law. (Jason Lee/Reuters)

China said Thursday that accusations against an alleged Chinese spy accused of attempting to steal trade secrets from American aviation and aerospace companies were "made out of thin air."

Yanjun Xu, an operative of China's ministry of state security, was charged Wednesday in Cincinnati after being extradited to the U.S. from Belgium.

Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang dismissed the allegations and called on the U.S. to deal with the matter "fairly in accordance with law" and ensure Xu's "legitimate rights and interests."

"The U.S. accusation is something made out of thin air," Lu told reporters at a daily news briefing.


....

Beijing baffled by allegations involving alleged Chinese spy jailed in U.S. | CBC News
 
Probably Atlantis Or the ship From the Roswell incident.

To this day, they still haven’t been able to reverse engineer everything, but have come along way.
The Americans stole the technology from the Chinese, the Chinese just trying to steal it back.

BAD AMERICANS
 
Exploit them at the expense of hard-working Midwestern Americans. Not a sustainable globalist project.

Israel is a Jewish ethnostate, they are not exploiting anyone outside the non-Jewish native populations

skilled immigration has been a win win for everyone. some native born Americans have been affected
 
LOL, if they stole a Lego set from you, it is their fault; if they stole a laptop from you it's you fault; but if they stole an entire airplane from you, you are just too stupid to deserve. Next, they are going to steal your Space Station, watch out!
 
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