The spy who came in from the watercooler… The DOJ charged former Apple software engineer Weibao Wang with stealing autonomous driving tech trade secrets (yep, the Apple Car is a thing) and sharing them with the Chinese self-driving car company he joined. The announcement came in a five-pack of cases, covering airplane parts intended for Russia and an attempt to send weapons materials to Iran.
- Agent Avengers: The five cases were the first from the Disruptive Technology Strike Force (cool name, ngl), which was formed in February to counter corporate spies. The team-up: agents from the FBI, Homeland Security, and US Attorneys' Offices.
Tinker tailor corporate spy… Stolen intellectual property (including trade secrets, pirated software, and counterfeit goods) costs the US up to $600B/year, the FBI estimates, and China’s the biggest offender. Last year FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that Chinese spying has become “more damaging than ever before.”
Tight grip: The US is working overtime to prevent China from riding America’s intellectual coattails. Example: rules introduced last year prevent US citizens from working at certain Chinese chip companies.
Slippery methods: A former GE Aviation exec convicted of revealing need-to-know info to China in 2021 explained how the country recruits expats through LinkedIn to attend academic events where they’re pressured to spill trade secrets.
Keep your frenemies close… From the spy balloon scandal to the trade war, US-China relations just keep getting worse. But America can’t exactly cut off the world’s No. 2 economy and one of its main trade partners. Still, the crackdown on corporate espionage combined with America-centric policies (like requiring more EV parts to be made domestically) could help the US stay in the economic lead.