OPINION:
In what might rightly be seen as a gigantic feather in President Trump’s MAGA cap, the U.S. will bring to trial a Chinese government intelligence agent accused of trying to steal trade secrets from American aviation firms.
This is possible because the feds have under lock and key, for the first time ever, an accused intellectual-property thief and espionage agent for the People’s Republic of China.
Yes, it’s the very same country that, during the 2016 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump accused of “raping” the U.S. on economics.
More recently, Vice President Mike Pence accused China’s intelligence agencies of the “wholesale theft of American technology.”
Long before the current administration, lots of economic, trade and intellectual property rapists who hail from Beijing and its environs had been indicted in U.S. courts.
Indicted and that was it. None had been nabbed, let alone tried in open court in the U.S.
Now, we got one.
Tricked by U.S. federal agents into showing up in Belgium, Yanjun Xu, a senior officer in China’s Ministry of State Security, found himself in handcuffs on a plane to the U.S. and then thrown in the slammer.
He will face prosecution in, yes, open court on charges of conspiring to steal trade secrets from American aviation firms, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
Mr. Trump has itched to see U.S. law enforcement crack down on such thefts by the government of Xi Jinping, the man who while dining with the U.S. president, learned that, under orders from Mr. Trump, the U.S. military was bombing the hell out of a Syrian military airbase as punishment for Syrian use of chemical weapons against civilians.
Even with all his official titles that include general secretary of the Communist Party of China and president for life of the nation of 1.4 billion people, Mr. Xi was impressed. Here beside him sat an American president willing to show off his military power — and his willingness to use it — over dinner.
The U.S. long has accused China of waging a stealthy and highly successful campaign to grab U.S. military technology, top secret information and the trade secrets of U.S. companies, some of which have had to partner with Chinese firms as the price of doing business in China.
Ah, the intimacy of forced partnership. The perfect setup for stealing American business secrets.
China’s intelligence establishment is apparently pretty good at putting to use that which it steals from our team. Beijing, for example, reportedly arrested or killed as many as 20 CIA assets in China between 2010 and 2012.
That was before the advent of the Trump presidency with its stated intention to put America’s interests and protection first again.
In fact, Mr. Trump has been on to Beijing’s China-first machinations against the U.S. from the get go.
At a presidential campaign rally in Indiana in May 2016, Mr. Trump held Beijing responsible for “the greatest theft in the history of the world.”
He was hammering Beijing for playing dirty on trade and currency manipulation back then.
Seven months into his presidency, he turned his wrath on China’s grand theft of the intellectual property of U.S. firms and government agencies. He told the U.S. trade rep to start looking into that thievery.
The trade rep found that Chinese theft of U.S intellectual property costs American business anywhere from $225 billion to $600 billion annually.
A great country doesn’t let another country get away with that larceny, year after year, without cessation or punishment.
Now, 21 months into the Trump presidency, his administration has hauled a PRC spy stateside to face the music American style. This doesn’t mean U.S. businesses recover the trillions of dollars that China’s spies have stolen over the years.
But learning that at long last our government has nabbed and intends to try one of the perps is music to the American ear.
Can’t help feeling that but for this president, we might not be hearing this music.
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