Moreover, it seems the Chinese made better use of the purloined knowledge than we would have. Compare their growth rate to America’s, or look at Chinese cities, their high-speed railroads, and advanced industries. Then there’s the elimination of mass poverty and the 3.5 million engineers and scientists the country mints every year. Such theft must be akin to stealing emeralds from the Louvre — a zero-sum game. Not only did the Chinese get the good stuff, but they also somehow prevented America from using it. How very diabolical.
Last year, Texas banned professional contact by state employees (including university professors) with mainland China, to “harden” itself against the influence of the Communist Party of China — an entity that has governed the country since 1949, and whose then-leader, Deng Xiaoping, attended a Texas rodeo in 1979.
Defending the policy, the new provost of the University of Texas, my colleague Will Inboden, writes in National Affairs that “the US government estimates that the CPC has purloined up to US$600 billion ($783 billion) worth of American technology each year — some of it from American companies but much of it from American universities.” US GDP is currently around US$30 trillion, so US$600 billion would represent 2% of that sum, or roughly 70% of the US defence budget (US$880 billion). It also amounts to about one-third of all spending (US$1.8 trillion) by all US colleges and universities, on all subjects and activities, every year. Make that 30 cents of every tuition dollar and a third of every federal research grant.
