The FBI released the below information:
What are Talent Plans?
Foreign governments sponsor talent recruitment programs,
or talent plans, to bring outside knowledge and innovation back to their
countries—and sometimes that means stealing trade secrets, breaking export
control laws, or violating conflict-of-interest policies to do so.
While various countries use talent plans, the Chinese
government is the most prolific sponsor of these programs—and the United States
is one of China’s main targets.
The U.S. welcomes international collaboration in academic
and scientific research and business development. But American businesses,
universities, and laboratories should understand the potential risks and
illegal conduct incentivized by Chinese talent plans and take steps to
safeguard their trade secrets and intellectual property.
How Chinese Talent Plans Work
China oversees hundreds of talent plans. All incentivize
its members to steal foreign technologies needed to advance China’s national,
military, and economic goals.
China recruits science and technology professors, researchers,
students, and others—regardless of citizenship or national origin—to apply for
talent plans. Individuals with expertise in or access to a technology that
China doesn’t have are preferred.
Participants enter into a contract with a Chinese
university or company—often affiliated with the Chinese government—that usually
requires them to:
- Subject
themselves to Chinese laws
- Share new
technology developments or breakthroughs only with China (they can’t share
this information with their U.S employer or host without special
authorization from China)
- Recruit
other experts into the program—often their own colleagues
China will let people with existing jobs in the United
States participate in talent plans part-time so they can maintain their access
to intellectual property, trade secrets, pre-publication data and methods, and
U.S. funding for their research.
Talent plan participants are offered multiple financial,
personal, and professional benefits in exchange for their efforts.
China’s talent plans have successfully recruited
participants around the world to work on key programs like military
technologies, nuclear energy, wind tunnel design, and advanced lasers.
Risks and Information for U.S. Businesses, Universities, and
Laboratories
Talent plans can sometimes foster legitimate sharing and
collaboration as part of an appropriate business arrangement or research
exchange, but this is not the norm.
Instead, talent plans usually involve undisclosed and
illegal transfers of information, technology, or intellectual property that are
one-way and detrimental to U.S. institutions.
Your students and/or employees could be talent plan
participants. Many people who participate in these programs work at prominent
U.S. laboratories, businesses, and universities, including places where
government research is conducted for sensitive military and scientific projects.
Transparency and disclosure regarding an individual’s
participation in a talent plan are essential. This is the only way U.S. institutions
can assess the risks to their intellectual property, prevent abuse of the open
access offered by the U.S. research environment, and ensure grant-funding
programs are fair and equitable. Unfortunately, many participants do not
disclose their involvement in these programs.
An individual’s undisclosed participation in a talent
plan may:
- Pose risks
to national security because of the participant’s obligation to the
Chinese government
- Result in
inappropriate use of taxpayer funds if the participant is awarded a U.S.
government grant
- Harm other
researchers and scientists by jeopardizing their professional credibility
and their ability to obtain future research funding—and denying them the
professional and financial benefits of their efforts—if their work is
stolen and transferred to China
- Result in
the recruiting of colleagues by the participant
- Result in
lasting financial damages to your institution due to stolen information or
the inability to obtain federal research funding in the future
Even if talent plan participants who steal information
are eventually caught and prosecuted, the damage done to your organization by
intellectual property theft may be irreversible.
Risks and Information for Chinese Talent Plan Participants
Although participating in talent plans is not inherently
illegal, you may violate U.S. law, especially if you don’t properly disclose
your affiliation.
You should familiarize yourself with and abide by
disclosure and conflict-of-interest rules required by your U.S. employer and
the U.S. government. Transparency and full disclosure of talent plan membership
and foreign contracts or agreements are essential for institutions to assess
risk.
You risk criminal prosecution when you steal intellectual
property or misuse grant funds. Talent plan participants have pleaded guilty or
been convicted of offenses including:
- Export-control
law violations
- Economic
espionage and theft of trade secrets
- Grant and
tax fraud
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