The Chenguang Gong case should terrify every American who cares about national security – but what’s even scarier is that this has been happening for decades, and it’s getting worse.
This Has Been Going On for Decades
You might think industrial espionage sounds like something out of a spy movie, but what happened in Los Angeles last year is just the latest chapter in a story that’s been unfolding since the early 2000s. Between October 2002 and January 2003 five Chinese businessmen were accused of illegally shipping equipment and trade secrets from California to China, and the pattern has only intensified since then.
We’re not talking about isolated incidents. Estimates suggest this theft costs America between $225 billion to $600 billion per year – that’s more than the entire GDP of most countries, disappearing annually through systematic intellectual property theft. A 59-year-old engineer – your neighbor, basically – walked into work every day for less than a month and systematically stole blueprints for some of America’s most critical defense technologies. We’re talking about the sensors that detect incoming nuclear missiles and help our fighter jets avoid being shot down.
Let that sink in for a moment. The technology designed to keep us safe from foreign missiles was being handed over to a foreign government by someone with a U.S. passport.
The Scale is Staggering
Gong didn’t just grab a few files on his way out the door. He methodically transferred over 3,600 files – including 1,800 after he’d already accepted a job with a competitor. This wasn’t a moment of poor judgment; this was a calculated, long-term operation that had been building for nearly a decade.
The stolen technology isn’t just expensive – it’s worth hundreds of millions of dollars and represents years of American innovation in missile defense. These are the systems that stand between us and ballistic missiles, hypersonic weapons, and heat-seeking missiles targeting our military aircraft.
Your Tax Dollars at Work (For Someone Else)
Here’s what should make you angry: You paid for this research. Through defense contracts, government funding, and tax dollars, Americans invested in developing these life-saving technologies. Now those blueprints are potentially in the hands of a government that openly considers us a strategic rival.
The “Talent Programs” that recruited Gong aren’t some innocent academic exchange – they’re part of a systematic campaign that’s been targeting American businesses, academic institutions, and researchers for years. And the scope is staggering: we’re talking about theft that costs every American family thousands of dollars annually in lost economic competitiveness.
The Pattern is Crystal Clear
Gong’s case isn’t isolated – it’s part of what experts are calling “the biggest industrial espionage campaign in history.” Since 2000, we’ve seen case after case: in June 2020, Hao Zhang was convicted of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets from semiconductor companies. The same year, four Chinese nationals were charged with visa fraud due to their connections with the People’s Liberation Army.
The FBI has been clear about what we’re facing: “the Chinese government is seeking to become the world’s greatest superpower through predatory lending and business practices, systematic theft of intellectual property, and brazen cyber intrusions.” Foreign governments are actively recruiting Americans to steal our innovations, and the financial incentives are substantial enough that people are taking the bait.
What’s particularly troubling is how long this went undetected. Gong had been applying to these talent programs since 2014, traveling to China to pitch stolen American technology, and sending business proposals for military applications. He operated for years before getting caught.
What This Means for You
Every time someone steals our defense technology, you become less safe. The missile defense systems that protect American cities become less effective when potential adversaries know exactly how they work. The countermeasures that keep our pilots alive become useless when the enemy has the blueprints.
But there’s a broader economic impact too. When foreign governments can simply steal our innovations instead of developing their own, it undermines the competitive advantage that American companies and workers depend on. Why invest billions in research and development when you can just recruit insiders to hand over the results?
The Hard Questions We Need to Ask
How many other Chenguang Gongs are out there right now? How many people with security clearances and access to sensitive technology are weighing lucrative offers from foreign talent programs against their obligations to America?
And why aren’t we doing more to prevent this? The case shows that Gong was traveling internationally, communicating with foreign contacts, and explicitly discussing military applications of stolen technology. These should have been red flags that security systems caught much earlier.
What Needs to Change
First, we need stronger counterintelligence programs that can identify these recruitment efforts before they succeed. Companies handling sensitive technology need better monitoring systems and clearer protocols for detecting unusual file transfers.
Second, the penalties need to match the crime. Ten years in prison might sound serious, but when you’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in stolen technology that could compromise national security, the punishment seems inadequate.
Finally, we need to be honest about the scope of this problem. Industrial espionage isn’t a rare occurrence – it’s a systematic campaign that’s been targeting American innovation for years. Treating each case as an isolated incident isn’t going to solve the underlying vulnerability.
The Time for Action is Now
The Chenguang Gong case should be a wake-up call for everyone who cares about American security and competitiveness. When someone can walk out of a defense contractor’s office with blueprints for missile defense systems, we have a problem that goes far beyond one bad actor.
This isn’t about being paranoid or xenophobic – it’s about protecting the innovations and investments that keep America safe and economically competitive. And right now, we’re not doing nearly enough to prevent the next Chenguang Gong from walking out the door with our most precious secrets.
The question isn’t whether this will happen again. The question is whether we’ll do something about it before it does.
