Chinese economic cyber espionage, government hacking into computer networks of companies to gain commercial advantages for Chinese firms, is one of the most complex issues confronting U.S. national security and foreign policy today. A creative legal response is available.
Fundamentally, Chinese economic cyber espionage compromises the competitiveness of U.S. firms in China and globally. For many reasons, such espionage, more precisely termed ‘commercial’ cyber espionage, is difficult to detect, to guard against, and to formulate policy responses in regard to. In particular, the diplomatic and global legal regime governing intellectual property rights predates such commercial espionage. The Internet and information and advanced communications technologies only became a feature of the global landscape since the adoption of the Uruguay Round Agreements, which included the intellectual property agreement (TRIPS), in 1995.
