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What an odd case. > RCMP Inspector David Beaudoin said that Mr Wang used his position at Hydro-Quebec to conduct research for a Chinese university and other re

What an odd case. > RCMP Inspector David Beaudoin said that Mr Wang used his position at Hydro-Quebec to conduct research for a Chinese university and other researcher centres. He allegedly published scientific articles and submitted patents in "association [with] this foreign actor rather than with Hydro-Quebec", he said. So the guy very publicly used privileged information to benefit a third party, without his current employer's consent. Doesn't sound much like state sponsored espionage, to be honest.

prasadjoglekar 4y ago
"Chinese University" is an arm of the Chinese state and potentially also of the CCP. It's not a purely commercial third party.
- manuelabeledo 4y ago
  Right, but why would anyone file a patent on stolen IP? It would both defeat the purpose of stealing the IP in the first place, and put a target on their backs.
  - AMerrit 4y ago
    This sounds more like a case of an ambitious dummy being prodded into being a stooge that leaks IP rather than purposeful espionage on his part.
  - ISL 4y ago
    If it provides cover for another entity, it could have value. "Hey, we licensed that patent from $(thief). We thought it was legit! We're innocent. All the liability for our infringement falls on $(thief)."
  - lazyeye 4y ago
    Picking flowers, making honey https://www.aspi.org.au/report/picking-flowers-making-honey https://www.aspi.org.au/report/picking-flowers-making-honey
  - pyuser583 4y ago
    I just had a conversation with a military police officer. He said one one of the ways they catch soldiers who go AWOL is to show up when they file for veterans benefits.
- DiogenesKynikos 4y ago
  This is painting things with an absurdly broad brush. The vast majority of academics in China are exactly the same as academics in the US and Europe. They are not arms of the Chinese state. It's frankly getting very tiresome to see literally everything and everyone in China painted in this conspiratorial, bad-faith manner.
jcrawfordor 4y ago
This is a pretty common strategy used by China, and I think they leverage the fact that it is so "above board" and transparent in some ways to their advantage... it's easier to recruit scientists and engineers into espionage by doing so in an apparently legitimate way with the sponsorship of an academic institution. I'm not sure if it's directly applicable to this case but the whole thing in general is known as the Thousand Talents Plan and is well-publicized in China... but conflicts with intellectual property and espionage policy in many other countries and was a perennial source of embarrassment for US universities (when their faculty were found to be on the Chinese payroll and publishing their work there) five years ago or so. People are thought to often be recruited into the program while attending academic events in China, which also gives it a degree of normalcy... it's presented as academic collaboration, not espionage. My point is that "doesn't sound much like state sponsored espionage" is probably exactly why Thousand Talents found so much success for a while. It has a veneer of legitimacy and stays pretty far away from anything that has the "cloak and dagger" appearance people associate with espionage.
DiogenesKynikos 4y ago
There are very few details about the charges yet, but from what's been said so far, this case looks disturbingly similar to recent cases in the US, in which innocent scientists were accused of espionage. The most prominent person targeted in the US was the head of MIT's mechanical engineering program, Gang Chen. As you can imagine, the head of MIT MechEng is very highly respected in his field, so the FBI's case against him was a shock to people in the field. Unusually for such cases, MIT stuck up for Gang Chen, and the FBI eventually had to drop the case. There was simply nothing there in the end. The whole case was built out of thin air and implausible misreadings of harmless emails. But before the FBI dropped the case, they made Gang Chen's life hell for a year. They carried out an early morning armed raid on his house, and arrested him at gunpoint in front of his family, as if he were some sort of terrorist or drug lord. They gave a big press conference in which they labeled him a Chinese spy. He wasn't allowed to continue his work, so he had to let his lab go. At the end of the whole ordeal, he said it reminded him of the Cultural Revolution in China, which he had personally experienced.
deleted 4y ago
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prasadjoglekar 4y ago

"Chinese University" is an arm of the Chinese state and potentially also of the CCP. It's not a purely commercial third party.

manuelabeledo 4y ago
Right, but why would anyone file a patent on stolen IP? It would both defeat the purpose of stealing the IP in the first place, and put a target on their backs.
- AMerrit 4y ago
  This sounds more like a case of an ambitious dummy being prodded into being a stooge that leaks IP rather than purposeful espionage on his part.
- ISL 4y ago
  If it provides cover for another entity, it could have value. "Hey, we licensed that patent from $(thief). We thought it was legit! We're innocent. All the liability for our infringement falls on $(thief)."
- lazyeye 4y ago
  Picking flowers, making honey https://www.aspi.org.au/report/picking-flowers-making-honey https://www.aspi.org.au/report/picking-flowers-making-honey
- pyuser583 4y ago
  I just had a conversation with a military police officer. He said one one of the ways they catch soldiers who go AWOL is to show up when they file for veterans benefits.
DiogenesKynikos 4y ago
This is painting things with an absurdly broad brush. The vast majority of academics in China are exactly the same as academics in the US and Europe. They are not arms of the Chinese state. It's frankly getting very tiresome to see literally everything and everyone in China painted in this conspiratorial, bad-faith manner.

jcrawfordor 4y ago

This is a pretty common strategy used by China, and I think they leverage the fact that it is so "above board" and transparent in some ways to their advantage... it's easier to recruit scientists and engineers into espionage by doing so in an apparently legitimate way with the sponsorship of an academic institution. I'm not sure if it's directly applicable to this case but the whole thing in general is known as the Thousand Talents Plan and is well-publicized in China... but conflicts with intellectual property and espionage policy in many other countries and was a perennial source of embarrassment for US universities (when their faculty were found to be on the Chinese payroll and publishing their work there) five years ago or so. People are thought to often be recruited into the program while attending academic events in China, which also gives it a degree of normalcy... it's presented as academic collaboration, not espionage. My point is that "doesn't sound much like state sponsored espionage" is probably exactly why Thousand Talents found so much success for a while. It has a veneer of legitimacy and stays pretty far away from anything that has the "cloak and dagger" appearance people associate with espionage.

DiogenesKynikos 4y ago

There are very few details about the charges yet, but from what's been said so far, this case looks disturbingly similar to recent cases in the US, in which innocent scientists were accused of espionage. The most prominent person targeted in the US was the head of MIT's mechanical engineering program, Gang Chen. As you can imagine, the head of MIT MechEng is very highly respected in his field, so the FBI's case against him was a shock to people in the field. Unusually for such cases, MIT stuck up for Gang Chen, and the FBI eventually had to drop the case. There was simply nothing there in the end. The whole case was built out of thin air and implausible misreadings of harmless emails. But before the FBI dropped the case, they made Gang Chen's life hell for a year. They carried out an early morning armed raid on his house, and arrested him at gunpoint in front of his family, as if he were some sort of terrorist or drug lord. They gave a big press conference in which they labeled him a Chinese spy. He wasn't allowed to continue his work, so he had to let his lab go. At the end of the whole ordeal, he said it reminded him of the Cultural Revolution in China, which he had personally experienced.

deleted 4y ago

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