<p><pre><code> In 2014, GE’s corporate security learned that Mr. Zheng
had copied more than 19,000 files from a GE-owned
computer to an external storage device, according to
the FBI affidavit.
In late 2017, GE discovered he had saved about 400
files on his desktop computer using encryption software
not used by the company.
</code></pre>
I don't understand why GE would keep him employed after the first offense. Can someone who understands corporate bureaucracy explain this? Especially knowing that he was literally running a competing business in China while employed at GE.
Why is the act usually perpetuated against the US. China trades with other countries but rarely you hear news of China stealing their tech. Why does China strive to a great deal to steal tech from the US
I am a Chinese and I am not comfortable with most of comments here. But I see lots of places that China companies can do much better though. I see people are growing awareness of IP or copyright, I hope these companies can do just better.
If you look into the story of American Superconductor, Sanyo Shinkansen, Apple's self driving car project and now, GE..it's all similar.<p>It's their culture, they don't believe in attribution nor fair trade, they're used to growing up in a red ocean. That's the way they are.<p>I work with Chinese companies on a regular basis, I never give them access to my repos, always uglify my JS code, and ensure strict rate limits for anything other than my office's IP address and carefully monitor access logs from their IPs and always implement kill switches in my software. I know what I'm doing isn't going to stop them if they wanted to, but for most part, it keeps them at bay.<p>Just watch out if you work in an industry where your IP is everything.
This is NOT a cultural thing folks. I really want to emphasize this basic basic fact. There are over 4 million Chinese Americans living here, 99% the most hardworking, honest, brilliant immigrants in America. The lowest crime, some of the highest success etc.<p>There are a handful of people stealing technologies though and the point I want to make it ITS STATE SPONSERED. China gives you a handbook on how exactly to steal technology and how to bring it back. The STATE SPONSERED stealing of tech in specific fields is the problem and is estimated to lose the US $150B every year according to a bipartisan report not including the rest of the world. The CIA estimates thousands of government trained espionage operatives are present in California alone, far more than any other country has had ever and this doesn’t include the Confucious Initiatives all over the country. This isn’t a Chinese problem at all, it’s the government of China specifically CCPs fault that should be countered by government policy not mistrust.
Going to use a throwaway here as I'm afraid of professional repercussions, despite being from the "land of the free."<p>Reading the comments here are just so funny. Why is it whenever a Chinese person does something, or rather an "Asian person," it must be attributed to their culture?<p>Do Chinese people not have personal traits? Could this guy just not be greedy?<p>There are 1.4 billion Chinese people. The ones that come to the US are over achievers. It should not be surprising in a group of over achievers to have a high percentage of greedy and opportunistic people.<p>Recently Ron Rockwell Hansen was arrested for spying for China. I wonder what type of cultural norms caused him to do so?
There are lots of bias in the comments. Some blame culture, which is wrong. This is a simple case, just like Uber waymo lawsuit.
<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/uber-waymo-lawsuit-settlement/" rel="nofollow">https://www.wired.com/story/uber-waymo-lawsuit-settlement/</a><p>Lots of Chinese companies don't steal IP and invest heavily in R&D, and they want to contribute. On Github, many contributors are from China.
The interesting part, other than fitting into the "Chinese IP theft" narrative, is that:<p>> [He] removed electronic files with company trade secrets involving its turbine technologies and hid data files in a digital photograph of a sunset. Prosecutors say he then emailed the picture to his email account.<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/08/01/us/ap-us-general-electric-investigation.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/08/01/us/ap-us-general...</a><p>Edit: Thanks for the downvotes?
I'm sorry, but China has been a pro at stealing IP from the West. I'm actually with Trump on this one (gasp) - but I think it needs to go one step further and actually drop trade all together.<p>Fact is, China straight up has people from the government who sit in factories reverse engineering the stuff that's built. The Chinese government (after it's been reverse engineered) helps support competitive businesses, then locks out the U.S. or other Western competitors (as it's in the national interest).<p>It's insane that the west has put up with this, because it's literally going to cripple the west in the long run.<p>Regarding this case, it's espionage essentially... But not really supprising given the prior events.
IP theft by spies just like piracy but between businesses and governments. Governments business should try to keep secrets as much as they can, of course, but losing secrets is rarely net negative globally.
Given there are ~7.5 billion people on Earth, and given we're getting more interconnected every single day, and given there is more "stuff" being invented every single day, at what point will we just assume this kind of stuff is commonplace and it won't make the news anymore?<p>In the same way a lot of forward-looking people are seeing a future were full-time work will have to be replaced by some form of Universal Basic Income, I wonder when we'll realize the whole IP / Copyright / "It's mine, you can't have it" mentality will have to be replaced.
I wonder when we as a human society can get past this silly nationalistic idea that one can steal information or technological ideas or designs. The entire concept of intellectual property is a hack to prop up industry revenues; it is not reality. The free flow of information and discoveries is essential to the advancement of the human condition.<p>It’s sad that more often than not, chinese hackers get this and US hackers do not.