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Trade and China Espionage |
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Written by Stumo
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Friday, 27 July 2007 |
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China may be the most aggressive espionage countries in the world.
Michelle Van Cleave, a former national counterintelligence
executive, said in a recent defense report that Chinese spies are among
“the world's most effective” and include civilian and military spies
who have “a global reach.”
The University of Michigan is one place that they acquire U.S.
military technology through Chinese student programs, according to Dr.
Charles Kauffman who teaches there.
“There is substantial concern,” [FBI Director Robert S.] Mueller
said. “China is stealing our secrets in an effort to leap ahead in
terms of its military technology, but also the economic capability of
China. It is a substantial threat that we are addressing in the sense
of building our program to address this threat.”
Joel Brenner, the director of national counterintelligence, said
in an interview in March that China's theft of technology from the
United States is a serious problem and that Beijing is “eating our
lunch” in terms of compromised know-how. Chinese spies are “very
aggressive” in obtaining technology, often before it is fully developed
by U.S. researchers, Mr. Brenner said.
Another technique is to allow U.S. technology companies to do
business in China, but joint venture with a company owned by the
Chinese government and with the condition of substantial transfer of
technology.
In these days of "national security"
justifying so much, the core national security of technology transfer
for military use is ignored by Congress. The FBI cannot do it
with just investigations, because systemic change is needed.
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In the news
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Today, the Labor Department revised up its estimate of second quarter productivity growth to 4.3 percent from its previous estimate of 2.2 percent. My forecast was 3.9 percent and the consensus forecast was 3.5 percent.
This is certainly good news for inflation and interest rate policy. Rapidly rising productivity growth coupled with easing oil prices will bring down headline inflation, as well as the closely watched core index of price increases, which excludes food and energy.
Simply, higher productivity permits businesses to better absorb increases in wages and benefit costs, and have something left over to help cover higher material costs. The Labor Department found that hourly unit labor costs actually fell 0.5 percent. Higher productivity should ease Federal Reserve fears about inflation and cause it to keep interest rates steady.
Rapidly rising productivity indicates U.S. industry continues to lead in the application of new and better methods for making and delivering goods and services, and continues to bang out great new products. The U.S. economy could perform very well with more supportive policies from Washington--getting the dollar exchange rate against the euro and Chinese yuan in line with prices; enlightened energy conservation, exploration and development strategies; and fixing the woes of banks and credit markets.
Friday, the Labor Department will report employment data for August. In July, the economy lost 51,000 jobs, and the consensus forecast is for another 75,000 jobs lost in August. My forecast is for a 65,000 loss.
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