White House Considers Restricting Chinese Researchers Over Espionage Fears (nytimes.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie: In April, China is said to have tested an invisibility cloak that would allow ordinary fighter jets to suddenly vanish from radar screens. This advancement, which could prove to be a critical intelligence breakthrough, is one that American officials fear China may have gained in part from a Chinese researcher who roused suspicions while working on a similar technology at a Duke University laboratory in 2008. The researcher, who was investigated by the F.B.I. but never charged with a crime, ultimately returned to China, became a billionaire and opened a thriving research institute that worked on some projects related to those he studied at Duke.

The Trump administration, concerned about China's growing technological prowess, is considering strict measures to block Chinese citizens from performing sensitive research at American universities and research institutes over fears they may be acquiring intellectual secrets, according to people familiar with the deliberations. The White House is discussing whether to limit the access of Chinese citizens to the United States, including restricting certain types of visas available to them and greatly expanding rules pertaining to Chinese researchers who work on projects with military or intelligence value at American companies and universities. The exact types of projects that would be subject to restrictions are unclear, but the measures could clamp down on collaboration in advanced materials, software and other technologies at the heart of Beijing's plan to dominate cutting-edge technologies like advanced microchips, artificial intelligence and electric cars, known as Made in China 2025.

Comments

Intellectual secrets?

[drakaan]

What does that even mean? Knowledge isn't something that you can keep people from having. That's like saying "mathematical secrets".

Re:Intellectual secrets?

[Anonymous Coward]

when talking about that kind of IP its more accurate to use "imaginary" than "intellectual" because it isn't property. Up until recent times there was no notion of pretending that a thought or idea could be "owned" and others restricted from accessing it.

Property is not just something you can have, it is something that you can be deprived of -- which is why societies around the world have formulated laws preventing others from doing so unjustly (e.g., payment or other mutually agreed condition). You can't deprive someone of knowledge or information (though you can try, witness Disney's continued extension of copyright terms) and so it can't be property. But the legal fiction was created in any case.

Which has resulted in increasingly silly situations because it fundamentally does not make sense.

This "news" is about the evil Chinese researcher increasing his store of knowledge, openly and similarly enriching those he worked with who then took the knowledge and allegedly leveraged it into a commercial product.

Sorry, but this is a familiar story. Just remove "evil Chinese" and you are describing numerous US startups. Those, however, were incorporated in the US so they didn't "commit espionage" or "steal knowledge" and instead are "successful entrepreneurs". Put another way, its one thing to have knowledge and something else entirely to apply it, engineer it into a product, move into production and market it. Just ask Tesla: they have not only the knowledge, but they also have application, engineering and marketing down -- but even with all of that they seem to be having problems with the "production" component.

This is just advertising for the building trade war with China. Part of any war is demonizing the other side.

Chinese are good researchers

[Anonymous Coward]

When I worked on research at the university, often paid for by DoD, the best researchers were often Chinese nationals. This was true for both professors and students. On one had, the DoD benefited from their hard work. On the other hand, I expected that the same research paid for by the US government was being sent right back to China.

The reality is, China is 1/3 of the world. That means 1/3 of the world's best research and most advanced weapons will be Chinese. If you want to see a model for the future of the world, look at China. The US is becoming more of a police state while China becomes more capitalist. As we move closer together, expect a globalist corporate police state to look after our well being on planet earth.

Re:Long overdue regulations

[Ayano]

Then perhaps companies should keep their research internal to employees rather than outsource to open universities. If you want the best research, you ought to hire the brightest rather than getting it 'on the cheap' from PHD students barely making ends meet.

Re:The Romulans called...

[cayenne8]

My reaction to this article is "Duh!!!"

The chinese have been conducting industrial and governmental espionage against the US for decades.

This should have been clamped down upon a LONG time ago, if anyone cares about this type thing.

Re:Made in China

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Flip over your iPhone. It says "made in china, designed in cupernico". Their goal is to get rid of the second half. And to have "made in china" on the bottom of most websites (not literally, cause that would turn people off.)

This is not an "own manufacturing facilities" push. This is an "own the IP" push.

Re:Long Overdue

[Actually, I do RTFA]

The CIA is in there too, but that's a horse of a different color for U.S. readers, isn't it.

Yes. Also, it should be for most people. The US is, for all it's faults, open and free. China is a totalitarian regime. It's a false equivalence to claim they approach being equal to each other.

Re:Made in China

[Pinky's Brain]

Made in China, backdoors designed and owned by the USA.

They want to own both the component manufacturing and own the backdoors.

Re:The Romulans called...

[MattskEE]

When we allow foreign students to attend our universities we also get a lot of the cream of the crop from these countries who end up staying here and getting highly productive jobs or start companies. Lots of PhD students in US universities are internationals, and a lot of them stay. Staying after their PhD is also not guaranteed - they need to demonstrate a certain level of productivity as a researcher and get sufficient letters of recommendation.

Sure, some of them will go back to their home countries having learned something. But before that happened we skimmed a lot of top talent from those other countries. Even if they go back to their home country that's not necessarily bad for the US. It's part of the US's "soft power", which Trump seems determined to make us weak in.

Re:The Romulans called...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes but they contribute back. There are a number of US companies who have bought Israeli companies for their advances. Do you think China will share their cloak with us? LOL

Yes this was a long time coming but America, publicly, refused to acknowledge what our true relationship is with China, Russia, Pakistan, etc.

As long as profits rolling in from today's deals, the government can be bought to make whatever policy business needs. We don't have a long term view here (citation: EPA recently) but China does. If we don't get our act together our grandchildren will be speaking Chinese.