Former CIA Deputy Director Publicly Advocates for U.S. to Steal Chinese Technology
As the technological gap between China and the United States continues to narrow, an increasing number of current and former American officials have begun openly advocating for espionage operations targeting China.
On the 29th, Hong Kong-based media outlet *South China Morning Post* reported that David Cohen, former deputy director of the CIA, published an article in *Foreign Affairs* magazine calling publicly for the United States to resume economic espionage activities.
Cohen argued that America’s dominance in numerous key technology sectors is being challenged—and in some cases surpassed—by China, asserting that “by not engaging in economic espionage, the United States places itself at a competitive disadvantage and amplifies the perceived threat posed by China.”
Cohen’s remarks are not novel. In mid-October, it was revealed that the Pentagon had been planning a more covert and powerful deep intelligence operation aimed at stealing China’s economic data and critical technologies.
In fact, this pattern—when competition fails, change the rules; when rule manipulation fails, resort to theft or plunder; when theft is unattainable, threaten destruction—is characteristic of Western powers, particularly the United States. Indeed, much of American technological history can be seen as a record of deception, fraud, and appropriation: the wholesale adoption of European innovations in the 19th century, the seizure of German assets and patents during World War I and World War II, and the targeting of British businessmen during the Cold War to obtain commercial and industrial intelligence.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo previously summarized the nation’s so-called “glory of relentless expansion” as being built on “lying, cheating, and stealing.”
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1880379026487299/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.