PerspectiveA New Idea for Fighting Chinese Theft of American Defense Technology

Published 11 July 2019

China is engaged in an organized effort to mass-produce counterfeit goods for resale abroad. This counterfeiting and copyright and trademark infringement harms America’s business owners, consumers, inventors, investors, and workers. China’s campaign of theft simultaneously seeks to obtain U.S. military technology to gain a decisive material advantage in a future armed conflict.

China is engaged in an organized effort to mass-produce counterfeit goods for resale abroad. This counterfeiting and copyright and trademark infringement harms America’s business owners, consumers, inventors, investors, and workers. China’s campaign of theft simultaneously seeks to obtain U.S. military technology to gain a decisive material advantage in a future armed conflict. To fight back, the U.S. government should allow American plaintiffs suffering intellectual property misappropriation and infringement by foreigners to file suit in the legal jurisdiction of Washington, D.C. if the copyrights, trade secrets, or patents in question are subject to defense export controls. Kevin Carroll writes in War on the Rocks that trade talks between Beijing and Washington are at an impasse, and the related issue of Chinese theft of American intellectual property remains unresolved, with the United States requesting hundreds of changes to Chinese law on this topic, according to China. What if President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump ultimately cannot reach agreement on this issue?