Read on Twitter
1/ Impressive-looking report from arms industry funded lobby group paints a picture of wide-scale systematic industrial espionage by China government. But delve into the cases cited & a different picture emerges: of amateurish individuals doing dodgy things for personal gain https://twitter.com/alexjoske/status/1296391161020465152
2/ Take the example cited of Zhao Huajun, portrayed as trying to steal US cancer cure research secrets on behalf of Chinese government. But when you read about his case in Science he comes across as a postdoc hamfistedly trying to get an assistant prof job https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2013/04/arresting-piece-research?fbclid=IwAR2P0fPTW7oJWY6ZdUa5ZllCz66bU19sujhMGIgwQXt2mSdonTeck_bDW_I
3/ When his case came to court he was let off with a slap on the wrist for trying to take his own data - valued at staggering $30,000 - back to China with him http://archive.jsonline.com/news/crime/chinese-scientist-to-be-sentenced-for-theft-of-research-drug-b9969693z1-218486261.html/
4/ Cases like Zhao's are examples of researchers doing dodgy stuff for personal gain, rather than some grand Dr Evil scheme to steal confidential valuable data for a cure for cancer. But they're included in these reports to make it look like there's a concerted espionage campaign
5/ And the people who compile these biomedical research espionage reports seem to have no idea about the complexity & scale of science research. They live in a fantasy 39 Steps spy world in which an individual can steal secrets and take them out of the country to copy inventions
6/ No doubt China is trying to access industrial & scientific info (as all counties & multinational corporations do) but these reports exaggerate & embellish, creating the impression of a major threat that must be addressed with severe measures, as seen with recent FBI arrests
7/ In other times it would be easy to dismiss these reports as the products of the conspiracy-fixated hawks within the securocracy. But now they are being acted on, with the likes of Pompeo and Dutton pouring huge resources into surveillance, arrest and jailing of scientists
8/ The worrying result the undermining and destruction of biomedical science collaboration between countries like Australia and US and China. This could not come at a worse time, when we need to be working in cooperation to fix issues such as pandemics and climate change
9/ The winners from reports like this are - surprise, surprise - the interests who fund them: armaments & security companies, and the burgeoning security service bureaucracies seeking more resources to snoop on us and more far-reaching powers & security laws to prosecute us with
