Or perhaps it isn't seen through the lens of intellectual property. It could seen as gaining knowledge that would allow one to build things they would otherwise

Or perhaps it isn't seen through the lens of intellectual property. It could seen as gaining knowledge that would allow one to build things they would otherwise not. From what I understand the Chinese culture treats IP very differently than the US. It isn't treated as being owned but people share documentation and the like with people they like. Westerners have a much more legalistic framework for how we treat our ideas. The notion that someone should be able to use the force of the government to prevent others from using their idea isn't necessarily a given but instead the result of certain traditions and institutions. I know the US corporations would like to push these ideas into being part of a binding framework of world trade but this primarily benefits the large corporations that have invested in research, accumulated patents and want to control the world so that they can profit. A lot of the espionage is probably also about gaining knowledge about firms for the purpose of understanding their weaknesses and the lay of the land vs. simply figuring out their secret sauce. I remember reading this was a common practice for Russian intelligence agents who didn't trust the official numbers and so wanted to gain proprietary knowledge from industry insiders.