Over the past week, both the House and Senate in the United States held two hearings on China and reached the same conclusion: China’s technological development relies heavily on theft, covering various fields from computers to artificial intelligence platforms to space.
According to the latest report from the Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA), the House Special Committee on China discussed the field of artificial intelligence, while the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on almost all areas, whether it be frying pans or fighter jets.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz from Texas revealed during last week’s Senate hearing on “China’s Continued Theft of American Innovation” that in 2011, his last case defended before the U.S. Supreme Court was the case of Global Tech Appliances v. SEB, with the plaintiff being a French household appliance manufacturer that owned a U.S. patent for a frying pan. The plaintiff accused a Chinese company of purchasing one of their frying pans in Hong Kong, conducting reverse engineering after dismantling it, stealing the patent, and producing frying pans to sell in the U.S. market, making a significant profit.
Cruz pointed out that China’s pattern of intellectual property theft has far-reaching implications, causing significant damage to the U.S. economy and even more serious consequences for U.S. national security.
During the hearing, committee members also revealed many other similar examples that may sound like tales to those unfamiliar with China.
For example, American Superconductor based in Massachusetts got caught in a billion-dollar intellectual property theft case. An employee of its subsidiary in Serbia secretly sold intellectual property to a Chinese wind turbine manufacturer, Sinovel. Following the incident, Sinovel was fined $59 million but continued to retain the stolen software and sell it. Meanwhile, American Superconductor was forced to spend a substantial amount on lawsuits in various regions, resulting in a sharp decrease in the company’s revenue and having to compete with its own products.
Another instance is China’s theft of intellectual property from Motorola by the walkie-talkie manufacturer Hytera Communications. In 2005, Hytera pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets and was fined $50 million by a U.S. federal judge in March 2026 (with a maximum penalty cap of $60 million).
The article by the Coalition for a Prosperous America points out that China is using various methods to steal intellectual property by taking advantage of the open U.S. system. One approach is through academia, dispatching postdoctoral researchers to work in the U.S. Another way is by mandating U.S. companies wanting to establish subsidiaries in mainland China to set up joint ventures, a policy that has relaxed somewhat in recent years. For instance, foreign automakers previously had to form joint ventures to operate in China, and by exploiting these loopholes, China has now become a powerhouse in the automotive industry, especially in the electric vehicle sector.
Regarding whether to continue allowing Chinese students to study critical areas in the U.S. while ensuring national security is not compromised, former CIA official and founder of the 2430 Group Tom Lyons believes it is not advisable to completely ban Chinese students from coming to the U.S. but stricter due diligence is needed to distinguish which individuals can be assets to the U.S. and which ones pose threats.
The three witnesses at last week’s Senate hearing all held a hawkish stance towards China. While one witness suggested that cooperation with China might be possible in terms of copyright protection, the key issue remains China’s theft and infringement of intellectual property.
Lyons mentioned that the Intellectual Property Commission’s 2017 data on intellectual property theft amounted to $600 billion, a figure believed to significantly underestimate the actual situation.
A few years ago, a data theft study in Germany revealed that data theft in Germany amounted to nearly $300 billion, whereas the German economy is only one-sixth the size of the U.S. Lyons estimates that based on this figure, economic espionage activities have cost the U.S. approximately $15 trillion.
Cruz emphasized that stealing technology not only results in huge profit losses but also alters the battlefield landscape. During the hearing, Cruz presented two almost identical photos of fighter jets, one being the U.S. F-35 fighter jet and the other the Chinese J-35 fighter jet.
Cruz stated that while the independently developed fighter jets may look similar, criminal convictions are more convincing than theory. Chinese national Su Bin pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court in 2014, admitting to stealing F-35 technology data and selling it to China.
He stressed that this was not a coincidence but rather a mutual benefit for the parties involved. While the U.S. spent decades and vast resources on innovation, China succeeded in copying and stealing American innovations within a few years, posing not as competition but as a parasite.
According to Lyons, trade and intellectual property theft mainly occur in energy markets, telecommunications technology, new solar panels, and transportation logistics.
Republican Senator Ashley Moody from Florida expressed her concern that what kept her up at night was that Americans, at least the U.S. government, seem to turn a blind eye to all the commercial secret theft and intellectual property infringement happening domestically. Many individuals who come to the U.S. to steal information, whether in military technology, commercial technology, or university research achievements, are warmly welcomed by the U.S. government.
Moody mentioned that countries the U.S. collaborates with have laws explicitly requiring their citizens to engage in eavesdropping and intelligence collection in the U.S. When she and other lawmakers discuss this issue, many are unaware, and she feels that Congress is powerless to act, viewing it as neglect of duty.