On Wednesday, April 22, the United States Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled “Covert Theft: China’s Ongoing Theft of American Innovation.” Bipartisan lawmakers and experts issued warnings, pointing out that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is systematically stealing innovative achievements in key areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), biopharmaceuticals, and military technology from the United States through espionage activities, unfair trade practices, and legal loopholes.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis estimated that such theft results in annual economic losses of $400 billion to $600 billion for the United States, roughly equivalent to around $5,000 per American taxpayer.
He further warned that China is transitioning from being an imitator to an innovator, and failure to curb CCP theft could affect the dynamics of strategic competition between the US and China.
Due to the absence of Senator Chuck Grassley, Senator Tillis chaired the hearing. In his opening remarks, he bluntly stated that the overall goal of the CCP regime is to weaken America’s leadership position and claim the title of “world innovation leader.”
He emphasized that knowledge-intensive enterprises, generating nearly half of the US GDP and providing over 47 million job opportunities, are crucial for the country’s economic prosperity.
“It is time for the President, the executive branch, and Congress to take action and hold China (the CCP) accountable,” said Tillis. “We must overcome the historical and ideological bias that China is incapable of innovation.”
Democratic Senator Dick Durbin criticized the CCP regime for exerting its full national effort for decades to acquire foreign technology through any means necessary in order to become a global leader in technology innovation.
Durbin warned that if American companies believe China will steal their patents, copyrights, trademarks, or trade secrets, their willingness to invest in research and development will decrease.
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, outlined multiple cases in a written statement, ranging from the theft of corn seeds in Iowa to a former Google engineer stealing AI trade secrets, showing that these actions ultimately directly benefit the CCP regime and the Chinese economy.
Senator Ted Cruz of Texas displayed a comparison image at the hearing of the highly similar appearance of the US military’s F-35 fighter jet and China’s J-35 fighter jet, criticizing China for directly stealing existing answers rather than innovating on its own.
Cruz stated, “When the US spends decades innovating, while China replicates through theft in a few years, this is not competition but parasitic behavior.”
During the hearing, Senator Ashley Moody of Florida expressed concerns that the US government has long failed to fully realize that some inbound individuals are attempting to steal military designs, trade secrets, and university research findings, likening the current system to inviting them in with a red carpet.
She said, “This keeps me up at night.”
Moody noted that it is worrisome that these individuals often come from countries that require citizens to assist intelligence agencies, such as China, where the National Intelligence Law mandates individuals and organizations to assist intelligence agencies, even extending actions beyond China’s borders, exerting immense pressure on Chinese companies and personnel operating in the US.
“Even more shocking is that our Congress has done nothing to prevent this situation,” said Moody. “I believe this is a dereliction of duty.”
She also mentioned several cases in recent years of Chinese students on visas filming military bases or operating drones in the US.
She added that Florida has taken proactive measures to address these threats and she is pushing for similar actions at the federal level in Washington to implement policy responses.
During the hearing, expert witnesses provided concrete data and in-depth analyses to corroborate systematic technology theft by China.
Former CIA operative and co-founder of the non-partisan organization 2430 Group, Tom Lyons, pointed out that the current US legal framework is insufficient to counter national-level adversaries. 2430 Group focuses on counteracting economic espionage activities.
Using Apple’s abandonment of its autonomous driving program as an example, he cited three major instances of Chinese software theft cases. While individuals were prosecuted, the Chinese industry behind benefited tremendously from the stolen technology, leading to rapid growth.
Lyons described this as an extremely unequal battle: “This is not General Motors versus Ford but a US startup against the People’s Liberation Army of China. This is a groundbreaking battery company against all the resources of the world’s second-largest economy.”
He succinctly summarized the sense of powerlessness in the current situation: “Individuals are prosecuted, the system remains intact, and the entire industry has transferred overseas.”
Helen Toner, Acting Executive Director of the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) at Georgetown University, focused on new threats in the field of AI – “Model Distillation.”
She highlighted that Chinese companies are extensively reverse-extracting training data from leading American models such as OpenAI and Anthropic to accelerate development and circumvent research costs.
Mark Cohen, Senior Fellow at the University of Akron Law School’s Intellectual Property Research Institute, warned that China is leveraging its vast patent system and judicial mechanisms to advance national strategic goals. He urged the US to take proactive steps.
“We should not be surprised by China’s progression. What is most surprising is that we are surprised by this. The US should recognize that China has transformed intellectual property into a powerful industrial policy tool.”
“We need a government capable of strategic planning and prioritization, not a government that merely reacts passively,” he said.
To address the aforementioned threats, experts recommended that the US establish a “whistleblower rewards program,” strengthen background checks on foreign influence, take decisive steps such as banning companies like Huawei from entering the market, bolster protection of critical infrastructure, and enhance safeguards to maintain America’s technological advantage.