Revised Spy Law Enables China to Arbitrarily Acquire IPs to Take Over US: Cyber Security Expert

A model of C919 passenger aircraft is on display during the 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing, China, on Sept. 3, 2022. VCG/VCG via Getty Images

A newly revised spy law enables China to arbitrarily acquire intellectual properties (IPs) to take over the United States, according to cyber security expert Casey Fleming.

On April 26, the Chinese communist regime passed the new version of its anti-espionage law, which will take effect on July 1.

The revision has expanded the definition of espionage, making it broader and vaguer, which increased the range of information and resources that Beijing considers relevant to national security.

For example, the scope of the subject of stealing secrets is expanded to “other documents, data, materials, and items related to national security and interests.”

The newly revised anti-espionage law also classifies selling out to espionage organizations and their agents as espionage, as well as “conducting cyberattacks against state organs, secret-related units, or key information infrastructure.”

Fleming pointed to the new legislative move, saying that it would shake up the business world in China.

“Companies doing business in China are ordered by Chinese communist law to share all of their data and all of their IP with the Chinese Communist Party. And they’re ordered to work with a sister company in China, which is completely controlled by the CCP, and they are again ordered to turn over all data and intellectual property,” Fleming, CEO of intelligence and security strategy firm BlackOps Partners, recently told the “China in Focus” program on The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet NTD.

“Now think about that. You want us to turn over all of our research, and the Research and Development (R&D), all of our dollars that would cost us to develop that R&D, and to turn it over to our competitor who we know is going to use it against us economically, to produce our products at a much lower price to our customers, but even more so using our data against us in their weaponization of this data to weaken and take over the free world,” he added.

Greater Risks

The vague definition of terms in the law puts foreign firms at even greater risk, in his opinion.

“You don’t know when you’re running afoul because that’s why it is vague and ambiguous. So that keeps the CCP in control. And that means that they can take their long arm of their law and exercise it at any point in any time. Not to mention the next step of rating companies for data is holding their executives and their employees in detention,” he said.

“But you have to understand what the risk is. It’s not just money risk, it’s personal risk for your employees in China. And you have to understand that it’s a different world that’s evolving today. And China wants to completely control that world, and they will never coexist with any other nation state,” he added.

Taking Over the US

With the targeting of foreign firms, according to Fleming, the CCP pursues “grand strategies to weaken the United States in the free world for takeover.”

“The biggest issue is they want to destroy the U.S. economy. They want to move our money, our economy into the Chinese Communist regime to support it. And that happens every time they steal intellectual property, [conduct] semiconductor theft,” he said.

The expert pointed to the report by the Windenergy Foundation, which states that “In the 1940s, during World War II, the largest known wind turbine of the time, a 1.25-megawatt turbine known as Grandpa’s Knob, produced electric power for the local utility network in Vermont.”

“Now over almost 80 percent of electronic energy windmills are produced out of China. So all that revenue is funding the CCP and it is not funding our national security, our economy, taxes, schools, hospitals, and so on,” he noted.

Fleming singled out the report on the Chinese communist intelligence officer Xu Yanjun, 42, who was found guilty in November 2021 of leading a ring of Chinese agents that targeted U.S. aviation companies, recruiting their employees to travel to China, and soliciting their proprietary information on behalf of the CCP.

CBS News cited Bill Evanina, a former top counterintelligence official, who said that the Chinese-built commercial aircraft Comac C919 is “proof” of the Chinese regime’s espionage.

“And now every one of these C919, which is pretty much an exact copy, will take $100 million out of the U.S. economy and the French and EU economy because it’s also competitive with the Airbus 320 and 321. And that will power the CCP,” he said.

Boycott China

To push back on the threat posed by the CCP, the expert called for a boycott of Chinese goods and a halt to investment in China.

“The point is, would you still invest in the Nazi regime in World War Two, or the Japanese regime that’s hell-bent on taking over the world? Would you still give them oil? Would you still give them capital? Would you still invest in their economy, and even if it meant that it’s going to weaken and harm American soldiers and American citizens going forward,” he said.

“So one thing I want everybody to understand, you have to look at your investments, make sure your investments are not investing in China, make sure you’re not buying things made in China, because those are being used to buy another bullet to come after our children and our grandchildren,” Fleming said.

Eva Fu, Alex Wu, and Andrew Thornebrooke contributed to this report.