In a major report released on August 20, an Australian think tank has sought to establish how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses overseas “talent-recruitment” stations to gain access to technology through covert and nontransparent means. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) report “Hunting the Phoenix” establishes that the CCP has at least 600 stations around the world that identify and recruit scientists and technologists who’d be valuable to China’s quest for technological dominance.

Reuters reported earlier today, that according to state-run Chinese television President Xi Jinping noted that his country will bring in “world class research teams” to push innovation in order to promote economic growth. Since the inception of China’s Thousand Talents Plan in 2008, more than 10,000 overseas scientists (including, though not exclusively, those of Chinese ethnicity) have been invited to work in the country under extremely lucrative terms, according to former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency officer William Hannas.

Read the full article at The Diplomat.