China’s efforts, both legal and illegal, to acquire America’s intellectual property (IP) have long been a central theme in the US–China relationship. A new book, The Great Heist: China’s Epic Campaign to Steal America’s Secrets, by David R Shedd and Andrew Badger, both formerly of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, offers a welcome and up-to-date forensic analysis of the issue.

The authors cite the FBI estimate of IP theft (mainly by China) which has cost the US economy up to US$600 billion (A$860 billion) a year over the past decade. Industrial espionage has been a driving catalyst for the rise of China, even if other factors have also played a role. According to some estimates China may already have a technological edge against the United States. ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker estimates that China now publishes the most high-impact research in 69 of the 74 technologies tracked, with the US leading in the remaining five.

How did China, which just a few decades ago was a technological backwater, make such rapid technological progress?

A pivotal moment in the great heist story was China’s membership of the World Trade Organisation in 2001, according to Shedd and Badger. China’s membership became a global apparatus for collecting IP – and not the hoped-for transformation of China into a rule-abiding member of the international trading system.