China Steals $600 Billion US Tech & IP Every Year
China has Stolen an Estimated $9.9 TRILLION since 2001
China claims the President Trump started the trade war against China by imposing his reciprocal tariffs:
https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/1915100105377567047
This is a complete lie. China has been waging a full-scale trade war against America for decades—President Trump just happens to be the first President to stand up to China—and they don’t like it.
On the Scale of China’s IP Theft
Case in point: China steals anywhere between $225 and $600 BILLION of American technology and intellectual property every year. Depending on the range of the estimate, this is roughly equal to—perhaps double—the value of the trade deficit in goods, which stood at $295 billion in 2024.
These numbers are not pulled out of thin air. They come to us from a 2017 report, the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property. This figure was recently reiterated in a 2024 FBI Report. The Report estimates that most of this loss is caused by the theft of American trade secrets ($540 billion), although software piracy ($18 billion) and counterfeiting ($41 billion) also cost American companies large profits.
Although the Report looks at this issue from a global perspective, in reality the vast majority of IP theft is committed by China. For example, 87 percent of all counterfeit goods entering America originate in either China or Hong Kong. This is echoed in a report published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which found that 60 percent of all counterfeit goods originated in China. The value of Chinese counterfeits deprived other nations — particularly America — some $291 billion in income.
A more recent report compiled by the United States Trade Representative likewise found that IP theft deprived Americans of significant revenue. For example, theft perpetrated on Chinese e-commerce markets “cause[s] great losses for U.S. Right holders involved in the distribution of a wide array of trademarked products, as well as legitimate film and television programming, music, software, video games, books and journals.”
Although this loss cannot be specifically stated, we know it’s high. In 2016, Chinese e-commerce transactions valued $752 billion. Meanwhile, 40 percent of the products were pirated. Thus, these sales may represent up to $300 billion in lost revenue for Americans.
Interestingly, these issues were even recognized by the Democrats. For example Obama’s director of the Counterintelligence and Security Center William Evanina estimated back in 2015 that cyber-espionage cost America’s economy some $400 billion annually. This number was extrapolated from voluntary reporting from 140 American companies operating in China.
Evanina also claimed that China’s government itself was responsible for 90 percent of all cyberattacks—not rogue companies or lone-wolf hackers. This is textbook economic warfare.
How China Steals American IP
As noted above, the Chinese government engages in significant corporate espionage. However, the main vector of IP theft is not theft at all—the Chinese are simply using their profits from the trade deficit to buy shares in American companies, at which point they own the technology.
America runs a large, chronic trade deficit with China. In recent years, the deficit has hovered around $300 billion per year. How does America pay for this deficit? By selling assets & debts—this is called the balance of payments.
For our purposes, assets include shares—ownership—of American corporations. The Chinese are particularly interested in investing in American industrial & technology companies. Essentially, we pay them money to buy their goods, and they use that money to buy our businesses—and with them, our technology. Foreigners now own 17% of all corporate shares as of 2024. This number is growing.
In addition to this, American companies that build factories in China are forced to partner with a local Chinese company—a corporate clone. The plant is staffed by Chinese workers, who are taught America’s industrial processes and how to replicate American technology.
Providing China access to American technology is actually the price to enter China’s market—American companies cannot operate in China without giving up their technological and industrial secrets. Yet they do it anyways because the Chinese make it worth their while.
Sino-American corporate partnerships and Chinese ownership of American companies are actually the primary vectors of IP & technology “theft”—yet they are not even contemplated in the above-noted reports.
What this means is that the value that China has “stolen” from America far exceeds even our wildest estimates. This should be manifestly obvious to anyone who has seen the growth of Chinese cities or rapid development of their own competing technology sector.
Consider the example of Huawei. Huawei started out as one of these “clone” companies, and has since expanded to be one of the largest technology companies on earth—entirely built on the back of stolen American technology. Does America reap a share of the profits? No.