the us crackdown economic espionage mess

THE US CRACKDOWN ECONOMIC ESPIONAGE MESS SERIES

The Department of Justice launched the China Initiative in 2018 after a series of federal government investigations regarding China’s trade practices, including its alleged efforts to steal American intellectual property. The Origin & Development of the China Initiative Rather, the past year has shown that the DOJ remains committed to combatting suspected economic espionage, trade secret theft, and national security threats from China, while abandoning the Initiative’s name and some of the more technical, regulatory prosecutions that had drawn public criticism. A review of the relevant cases shows that is exactly what the DOJ has done: since the DOJ made its announcement, the DOJ has not stopped investigating prosecuting Chinese actors. In our view as reflected in our OnPoint at the time, 3 the DOJ would not end its initiative just refocus it.

1 This led a variety of legal commentators and news organizations to report that the China Initiative was “dead” or “ended.” 2 But we respectfully disagreed. The Department of Justice announced on February 23, 2022, that it would no longer be grouping cases under the “China Initiative” rubric, citing the “harmful perception” of racial or ethnic bias the use of that nomenclature had potentially created. Thus, Chinese companies and those who do business with them should continue to be vigilant about their compliance obligations.Far from discontinuing its focus on a perceived Chinese threat, the DOJ has simply refocused its efforts away from prosecuting Chinese academics towards more substantial Chinese threats like economic espionage, export control and sanctions violations, and technology theft.The DOJ started the Initiative in 2018 to combat identified threats to the United States from China, including economic espionage and trade secret theft.But as Dechert predicted at the time, a review of the DOJ’s prosecutorial activities over the last year shows that the DOJ has continued to vigorously investigate and prosecute Chinese actors while discontinuing use of the China Initiative terminology.The Department of Justice announced on February 23, 2022, that it would no longer be “grouping cases under the China Initiative rubric,” which many in the press presented as the end of the China Initiative program.

The us crackdown economic espionage mess