Back to Black

Back to Black

February 17, 2008:China has a plan for using industrial espionage to turn their country into the mightiest industrial and military power on the planet. For over two decades, China has been attempting to do what the Soviet Union never accomplished; steal Western technology, then use it to move ahead of the West. The Soviets lacked the many essential supporting industries found in the West (most founded and run by entrepreneurs), and was never able to get all the many pieces needed to match Western technical accomplishments. Soviet copies of American computers, for example, were crude, less reliable and less powerful. Same with their jet fighters, tanks and warships.

China believes they can avoid the Soviet error by making it profitable for Western firms to set up factories in China, where Chinese managers and workers can be taught how to make things right. At the same time. China allows thousands of their best students to go to the United States to study. While most of these students will stay in America, where there are better jobs and more opportunities, some will come back to China, and bring American business and technical skills with them. Finally, China energetically uses the "thousand grains of sand" approach to espionage. This involves China trying to get all Chinese going overseas, and those of Chinese ancestry living outside the motherland, to spy for China, if only a tiny bit.

This approach to espionage is nothing new. Other nations have used similar systems for centuries. What is unusual is the scale of the Chinese effort.Backing it all up is a Chinese intelligence bureaucracy back home that is huge, with nearly 100,000 people working just to keep track of the many Chinese overseas, and what they could, or should, be to trying to grab for the motherland. It begins when Chinese intelligence officials examining who is going overseas, and for what purpose. Chinese citizens cannot leave the country, legally, without the state security organizations being notified. The intel people are not being asked to give permission. They are being alerted in case they want to have a talk with students, tourists or business people before they leave the country. Interviews are often held when these people come back as well.

Those who might be coming in contact with useful information are asked to remember what they saw, or bring back souvenirs. Over 100,000 Chinese students go off to foreign universities each year. Even more go abroad as tourists or on business. Most of these people were not asked to actually act as spies, but simply to share, with Chinese government officials (who are not always identified as intelligence personnel) whatever information they obtained. The more ambitious of these people are getting caught and prosecuted. But the majority, who are quite casual, and, individually, bring back relatively little, are almost impossible to catch.

Like the Russians, the Chinese are also using the traditional methods, using people with diplomatic immunity to recruit spies, and offering cash, or whatever, to get people to sell them information. This is still effective, and when combined with the "thousand grains of sand" methods, brings in lots of secrets. The final ingredient is a shadowy venture capital operations, sometimes called Project 863, that offers money for Chinese entrepreneurs who will turn the stolen technology into something real. No questions asked. If you can get back to China with the secrets, you are home free and potentially very rich.

But there are some legal problems. When the Chinese steal some technology, and produce something that the Western victims can prove was stolen (via patents and prior use of the technology), legal action can make it impossible, or very difficult, to sell anything using the stolen tech, outside of China. For that reason, the Chinese like to steal military technology. This kind of stuff rarely leaves China. And in some cases, like manufacturing technology, there's an advantage to not selling it outside of China. Because China is still a communist dictatorship, the courts do as they are told, and they are rarely told to honor foreign patent claims.

开始卸下伪装的中国

中国正在谋划通过偷取别国的工业技术来把自己变成地球上最强大的工业和军事帝国。在最近的二十年里中国正在尝试完成苏联未能完成的夙愿；通过盗取这些西方国家的科学技术来赶超它们。苏联一直以来缺少许多必须的支撑性产业，而这些产业在西方往往都是由企业家进行越做的。因此苏联从来也没能于西方国家在科学上的造诣比肩。苏联人尝试复制在美国诞生的计算机，但是做出来的产品性能却不能和美国的相比。苏联生产战斗机，坦克，战艇结果也是如此。

中国政府则有着自己的诡计。它们引诱外资在中国内地建立工厂，让中国人在工厂里学习如何制造货真价实的西方货；他们派出最优秀的学生到美国留学，尽管他们中不少会留在美国，还是有人会带着美国的商业和科学技术回到国内。中国通过这些手段隐蔽的从美国偷取技术：让大量的中国人出国，让他们在海外定居，再尝试让其中部分人为为中国政府做间谍。

事实上这已经不是什么新鲜伎俩。但是不寻常的是中国为这种行为的劳心尽力。在幕后有一个有近十万人的政府情报机构来跟踪海外华人的情况，来了解它们能为祖国带回些什么。中国的情报官员会了解要出国的人的情况和目的。一般中国公民只有在得到相关机关的允许后才能出国，但是这些情报人员可以随意出境。他们被要求与国外的学生，游客和商人谈话说要注意。这些人回国后会有人去了解他们在国外的情况和发生的事情。

他们当中有些人会有机会接触到一些中国政府认为很重要的事务，他们会被告知记录下它们所见所闻，尽可能的带些"纪念品"回来。每年都有超过十万的中国学生出外留学，除此之外还有各种身份的人以旅游和商务的名义到世界各国旅行。他们其中绝大部分的人并不会被明确的要求进行间谍活动，中国政府只是想了解他们得到的信息。政府会派出专人接触有出国经历的人，与他们的"分享"国外的情况。有些急功近利的人想获取重要的资料来博取政府的好感，这些人比较容易暴露并被检举。但是大多数的人只是随意的，一点点的，将情报一点点的带回国内。这种方式几乎是无法阻止和揭发的。

中国政府也会采取一些传统的手法，派出那些拥有外交豁免权的人在国外召集间谍，购买情报。这种做法配合着"群众战术",正发挥着恐怖的作用。于此之外，中国政府还冒着一定风险处心积虑的进行着一项计划来把这些偷来的技术变成实物。这个险恶的计划被称为863计划。只要你带着从海外偷来的技术回国并且中国政府认为你的技术有价值，那么你已经立了大功了，接下来会有足够的资金让你将这些西方的技术产业发展起来，你的未来将会一片光明。

然而不断的偷取西方商业技术也带来了不少法律问题。中国运用西方技术生产的商品被出口到西方国家时，有些企业可以明确的提出证据指名这些产品盗用了他们的专利。国家可以采取法律措施禁止这些中国货的销售。这样一来中国很难从西方国家再获取利益。所以中国政府又开始打西方先进的军事技术和制造技术的打算。而这些正是中国所缺乏的。另外这些东西不用费心去销往外国，再说中国有不在乎外国对专利权益保护的职责。

----------

标题的翻译需要些意见...