Competition for leadership in science and technology sits at the heart of US-China relations. In his first term, Donald Trump led a very hawkish policy toward China that included initiating new programs to counter economic espionage. The second Trump administration has taken a more mixed approach with advocates of tougher and more cooperative approaches battling it out behind the scenes. In parallel, attacks by this administration on academic research have been met with eager Chinese recruitment efforts.
At this event, two distinguished journalists help us examine the different views and approaches toward tech and science competition with China that are currently vying to shape US policy. Both have done in-depth reporting on this issue:
Eileen Guo, a senior reporter for features and investigations at MIT Technology Review, focuses on how the tech industry shapes our world – often entrenching existing injustices and inequalities in the process. Her recent work has included a data investigation on the US Department of Justice’s controversial program to root out Chinese economic spies that revealed that it struggled to develop a clear definition of malign behavior.
Mara Hvistendahl, an investigative correspondent with the New York Times, authored the book The Scientist and the Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage (Riverhead 2020) about the theft of trade secrets involving a Beijing company. In it, she helps readers understand both the real dangers of espionage and the risks of misguided intelligence efforts shaped by racism, ambition, and corporate influence.
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