‘China is stealing our stuff and they’re not even hiding it’: US tech protection task force

In China there is a saying, “Picking flowers in the US to make honey in China.” The US DoD tech protection task force has another saying, “China is stealing our stuff!”

“China and the others are stealing our stuff, and it is causing the erosion of the lethality of the joint force,” said Air Force Maj. Gen. Thomas E. Murphy, who is the director of the Protecting Critical Technology Task Force of the Department of Defense (DoD).

“China is unrelenting in hacking our businesses, both big and small. No wonder their stuff looks remarkably like ours”

In response to China stealing technology from the US and eroding the force’s lethality, Murphy called upon everyone working in technology to “up your game, and get your cybersecurity in order,” at the Association of the US Army (AUSA) forum on Russia and China.

The US and China are neck and neck for technological supremacy.

China is either at par with or surpassing the US in many areas of technology such as quantum sciences, artificial intelligence, 5G, and genome sequencing to name a few.

In fact China has more data on the genetic sequencing of the US population than the United States has on its own population.

Murphy added that China wasn’t even trying to hide that it was stealing American technology.

”China devotes significant resources at a national level to infiltrate our universities and our labs. And they are doing it for a reason. They’ve even coined the phrase … ‘Picking flowers in the US to make honey in China,’ which I would say perfectly illustrates their deliberate plan to steal R&D, knowhow, and technology to advance their military capability. They are not even hiding it.”

Everyone in the military and intelligence community knows that the biggest technological threat to the US is China’s Communist regime.

Whomever comes out on top of the technological race will have tighter control over the global economy, foreign policies, and the ways wars are fought.

“We’ve unwittingly become the [research and development] base for adversary capabilities and for our strategic competitors”

If the US government, along with private companies do nothing to stop the theft of American innovation, Murphy warned that it might mean ”the lethality of the joint force is diminished to a point that is irreparable.”

“They [China] are unrelenting in hacking our businesses, both big and small. It’s no wonder why their stuff looks remarkably like ours.

“Look at their airlifter and their newest fighter. It looks just like a C-17 and an F-35. That’s not a coincidence. We’ve unwittingly become the [research and development] base for adversary capabilities and for our strategic competitors,” Murphy added.

With regards to ensuring that technology isn’t transferred over to China, the US military has repeatedly slammed companies like Google for aiding the Communist regime against the interests of the US.

“The work that Google is doing in China […] is a direct benefit to the Chinese military,” said US Joint Chiefs Chairman General Joe Dunford back in March.

“If a US company does business in China, they will automatically be required to have a cell of the Communist Party. That is going to lead to [that company’s] intellectual property going to the Chinese military,” he added.

Former acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan echoed concerns that China had hijacked American innovation, stating:

“$5 trillion of their [China’s] economy is state-owned enterprises. So the technology that has developed in the civil world transfers to the military world, it’s a direct pipeline.”

“Not only is there a transfer, there is systemic theft of US technology that facilitates even faster development of emerging technology,” he added.

According to Murphy, China is employing a comprehensive national strategy to acquire critical US technologies through both licit and illicit methods.