Asia Nikkei reported on April 7, how a mounting string of allegations from the US paint a damning portrait of how China's advanced technology sector has rapidly grown due to corporate espionage at a near-systemic level. Tesla said in a lawsuit filed in late March that a former autonomous-driving engineer, Cao Guangzhi, illicitly obtained a trove of source code that he handed over to his new employer, the Chinese electric-vehicle startup Xpeng Motors. This echoes criminal charges brought by the FBI against ex-Apple employee Zhang Xiaolang last July. Zhang is suspected of leaving the US company with proprietary data on self-driving technology, including a 25-page schematic manual, which he gave to his new bosses at Xpeng. This January, the FBI charged yet another ex-Apple employee, Chen Jizhong, with transferring driverless trade secrets to an unidentified Chinese rival. In October, a senior Chinese intelligence official was arrested for trying to steal tech secrets from General Electric. The US Justice Department indicted Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit in November, and Huawei Technologies in January. Xpeng, founded in 2014, has grown to be the biggest unicorn in China's self-driving industry. CB Insights values the automaker at $3.65 billion. Backers include the likes of Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba Group Holding and Taiwan-based Apple supplier Foxconn, or Hon Hai Precision Industry.

(Comment: China's "Thousand Talents Plan," a state program to recruit global experts, has recently received negative attention in the US. Since launching in 2008, about 8,000 people have been recognized, and the chosen are entitled to certain positions and funding. Xiaoqing Zheng, the US citizen arrested in August for stealing trade secrets from GE, was selected for that program.)