Five Eyes intelligence chiefs warn on China's 'theft' of intellectual property
By Zeba Siddiqui
October 19, 202312:46 AM GMT+8
STANFORD, California, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The Five Eyes countries' intelligence chiefs (五眼联盟情报主官) came together on Tuesday to accuse China of intellectual property theft (智慧产权盗窃) and using artificial intelligence for hacking and spying against the nations, in a rare joint statement by the allies (联盟成员联合公报).
The officials from the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - known as the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network - made the comments following (继与硅谷公司会面之后) meetings with private companies in the U.S. innovation hub Silicon Valley.
U.S. FBI Director Christopher Wray said the "unprecedented" joint call (联合声明、呼吁) was meant to confront the "unprecedented threat" China poses to innovation across the world.
From quantum technology and robotics to biotechnology and artificial intelligence, China was stealing secrets in various sectors (多个领域、广泛的方面), the officials said.
"China has long targeted businesses with a web of (不表示“网络”，意指一系列、综合的手段) techniques all at once: cyber intrusions, human intelligence operations, seemingly innocuous (无伤大雅的) corporate investments and transactions," Wray said. "Every strand (线、毛发等的股、缕) of that web had become more brazen, and more dangerous."
In response, Chinese government spokesman Liu Pengyu (刘鹏宇) said the country was committed to intellectual property protection.
"We firmly oppose to the groundless allegations and smears (无端、无根据的指责与污蔑) towards China and hope the relevant parties (有关方面) can view China’s development objectively and fairly (客观、公正地)," the spokesperson for China's embassy in Washington said in a statement to Reuters.
The U.S. has long accused China of intellectual property theft and the issue has been a key sore point (主要的、核心的痛点) in U.S.-China relations. But this is the first time the Five Eyes members have joined publicly to call out China on it (在某方面公开指责某方的行为、态度、做派).
"The Chinese government is engaged in (大意同前文的committed to，但褒贬相反的表述) the most sustained scaled and sophisticated theft of intellectual property and expertise in human history (史上规模最……的)," said Mike Burgess, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation's director-general.
While China's intention to innovate for its own national interest was "fine and entirely appropriate", Burgess said "the behaviour we're talking about here goes well beyond traditional espionage."
Last month, his department busted (阻止、打破) a Chinese plot to infiltrate a prestigious Australian research institution that involved planting an academic there to steal secrets, he said.
"This sort of thing is happening every day in Australia, as it is in the countries here," Burgess said.
The Five Eyes statement follows the group's warning in May of a widespread Chinese spy operation it said was targeting critical infrastructure and various other sectors.
The Chinese government dismissed those allegations as a "collective disinformation campaign."
Wray said China had "a bigger hacking program than that of every other major nation combined" that together with Beijing's physical spies and stealing of trade secrets from private businesses and research institutions gave the country enormous power.
"Part of what makes it so challenging is all of those tools deployed in tandem (一起、一同、前仆后继地), at a scale the likes of which we've never seen," Wray said.
The officials called for private industry and academia to help in countering those threats, chief among which they said were artificial intelligence tools.
"We worry about AI as an amplifier for all sorts of misconduct," Wray said, accusing China of stealing more personal and corporate data than any other nation by orders of magnitude (依重要性、规模、程度计).
"If you think about what AI can do to help leverage (充分利用、撬动) that data to take what's already the largest hacking program in the world by a country mile, and make it that much more effective - that's what we're worried about," he said.
Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui in Stanford, California; Editing by Jamie Freed
source: https://www.reuters.com/world/five-eyes ... 023-10-18/
references:
新华国际时评：指责中国“盗窃知识产权说”可休矣
https://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2019-05/13/co ... 391087.htm
Global Intelligence Chiefs Warn Of ‘Unprecedented’ Chinese Spy Threat
https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoolla ... py-threat/