Chair Ernst, Ranking Member Markey, distinguished members of the Committee and staff, I am grateful for the opportunity to testify on this topic.

I am a founding member of Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, where I track technology threats posed by China.  Prior to that, I was a Senior Intelligence Service officer at CIA managing the same portfolio.  These efforts led to two books on Chinese industrial espionage in 2013¹ and 2021² and to other studies on the topic.

My interest in Chinese foreign tech transfer began as a graduate student preparing a thesis on China’s cultural predisposition for holistic thought, which has served China well in practical terms but hinders progress in basic science—and has plagued China since antiquity.  I bring this up to emphasize that China’s reliance on foreign ideas has historical roots not easily overcome. Another factor that drew me to the topic was the discovery that China treats foreign technology acquisition as an academic discipline—科技情报学or “S&T intelligence study”—on a par with other scientific fields, replete with degree programs, how-to manuals, academic journals, and career positions, supported by legislation and some 100,000 “S&T intelligence operatives.”³

So, the notion that China’s “informal” transfer of foreign technology is done by opportunistic individuals is pure myth.  This is a state-backed, soup-to-nuts system that has been running at the central government’s direction since the 1950s and is not abating, even as China’s indigenous accomplishments grow.⁴

1. William C. Hannas, James Mulvenon, and Anna Puglisi, Chinese Industrial Espionage. (New York and London: Routledge, 2013).
2. William C. Hannas and Didi Kirsten Tatlow, eds. Beyond Espionage: China’s Quest for Foreign Technology (New York and London: Routledge, 2021).
3. William C. Hannas and Huey-Meei Chang, “China’s STI Operations: Monitoring Foreign Science and Technology through Open Sources,” Center for Security and Emerging Technology, January 2021, https://cset.georgetown.edu/publication/chinas-sti-operations/.
4. Ibid.