ASIO and FBI heads at Five Eyes intelligence summit accuse China of being world's worst intellectual property thief
The domestic intelligence chiefs of Australia and the United States have issued a scathing criticism of China, accusing it of intellectual property theft on an unprecedented scale.
Key points:
The Five Eyes intelligence partners are holding an unusually public summit in California
ASIO and the FBI say China is behind the most sustained and sophisticated theft of IP ever
They've cited examples of malware being installed on company computers, and corporate insiders recruited to pass on trade secrets
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess and FBI director Christopher Wray are in California for the first-ever public gathering of the Five Eyes intelligence partners, which also include the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand.
Mr Burgess said the decision to step outside their normally secretive meetings reflected the nature of the threat they were facing.
"We recognise nations will spy, we recognise nations will seek strategic advantage," he said ahead of the summit.
"But what we're talking about here, this is behaviour that goes beyond traditional espionage.
"The Chinese government are engaged in the most sustained, sophisticated and scaled theft of intellectual property and expertise in human history.
"And this summit is about how we work with our partners together, and in the tech sector and innovation sector, so they can better be placed to identify and manage those risks effectively."
Mr Wray labelled the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) the "number one threat to innovation", arguing it had made economic espionage "a central component of its national strategy".
"The FBI have, over the last several years, had about a 1,300 per cent increase in investigations that are, in one way or another, related to attempts to steal intellectual property or other secrets by some form of the Chinese government, or some arm of the Chinese government," he said.
"It wasn't that long ago, when I checked, we were opening a new investigation, again, specifically focused on China and its efforts to steal intellectual property and other secrets, about every 12 hours."
The UK, Canadian and New Zealand intelligence chiefs expressed similar concerns at the summit, which comes at a time when the Australian government is still trying to stabilise its relationship with Beijing.
The Chinese government has defended its conduct, arguing it has "always attached great importance and been actively committed to intellectual property protection".
A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, said his country firmly opposed the "groundless accusations and smears" towards China and hoped "the relevant parties can view China's development objectively and fairly".
Duped with a malicious USB
Mr Burgess referenced an unnamed Australian company that found global success making a product "similar to a motion detector" before their sales suddenly dropped.
"A little while later, their product started being returned to the factory because they were broken," he said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-18/five-eyes-spy-summit-asio-cia-fbi-san-francisco/102984976