Chinese Industrial Espionage ─ Technology Acquisition and Military Modernization

This new book is the first full account, inside or outside government, of China’s efforts to acquire foreign technology.

Based on primary sources and meticulously researched, the book lays bare China’s efforts to prosper technologically through others' achievements. For decades, China has operated an elaborate system to spot foreign technologies, acquire them by all conceivable means, and convert them into weapons and competitive goods—without compensating the owners. The director of the US National Security Agency recently called it "the greatest transfer of wealth in history."

Written by two of America's leading government analysts and an expert on Chinese cyber networks, this book describes these transfer processes comprehensively and in detail, providing the breadth and depth missing in other works. Drawing upon previously unexploited Chinese language sources, the authors begin by placing the new research within historical context, before examining the People’s Republic of China’s policy support for economic espionage, clandestine technology transfers, theft through cyberspace and its impact on the future of the US.

This book will be of much interest to students of Chinese politics, Asian security studies, US defence, US foreign policy and IR in general.

William C. Hannas has an MA from the University of Chicago in Chinese and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in Asian languages. He served with the US Navy and Joint Special Operations Command, taught at Georgetown University, and holds a senior executive position in a component of the US federal government. Hannas is author of Asia’s Orthographic Dilemma (1997) and The Writing on the Wall: How Asian Orthography Curbs Creativity (2003).

James Mulvenon is Vice-President of Defense Group, Inc.’s Intelligence Division and Director of DGI’s Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis. Trained as a Chinese linguist, he is a leading expert on Chinese cyber issues, and has published widely on Chinese military affairs, party-army relations, C4ISR, and nuclear weapons doctrine and organizations. He has a PhD in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is author of Soldiers of Fortune (2000).

Anna B. Puglisi has MA and MS degrees in public affairs and environmental science, has worked in research and technical infrastructure, and now holds a senior analyst position in a component of the US federal government. Ms. Puglisi studied at the Princeton in Beijing Chinese language school and was a visiting scholar in Nankai University’s Department of Economics, where she studied China’s S&T policies, infrastructure development, and university reforms.