Judging by the news headlines China is ramping up its industrial espionage efforts: secret payments to high-profile scientists, massive hacks of foreign universities and clumsy attempts to steal trade secrets the old-fashioned way. Intelligence agencies in the US and Australia have both issued dire warnings about the existential dangers posed by this sort of activity, but how much of a risk does China's espionage even pose? And should the FBI be devoting huge resources to protecting multinational corporations when they can be acquired by Chinese interests through mergers and acquisitions? In this show, Graeme and Louisa talk to Mara Hvistendahl, the author of the newly released book The Scientist and the Spy, as well as Yun Jiang, a former Australian civil servant and now co-editor of the Neican China newsletter about the future of Chinese economic espionage.

Image Credit: rabesphoto, Flickr

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