Through shady Talent Programs China aimed to be world super power by 2050
Mumbai: Had it not been for the spread of the COVID-19 virus in Wuhan’s wet market in November-December of 2019, and it subsequently turning into a pandemic, the world would never have come to know of China’s shady Talent Program’s. Through more than 200 such Talent Programs some started since 1994, the latest one the Thousand Talent Program (TTP) started in 2008, aimed at making China world super power especially in Science and Technology by year 2050. The target was to be achieved by all means that included economic espionage.
The ironical part of it is that even the Counter-Intelligence Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began taking serious note of the real intent of the dubious nature of these Chinese Talent programs, only in mid-2018, a good 26 years after they began. Now the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government has taken down or hidden all references to these programs and the China Daily has even taken down its May 29, 2018 tweet on Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in Central China’s Hubei province which it claimed preserves more than 1,500 different strains of virus, describing it as Asia’s largest Virus bank.
China’s quest to become the world super power had begun way back in 1994 with the launch of the Hundred Talent program. The quest was given a serious boost in 2008 with the TTP as Chinese government began pledging 15 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on improving its human resources by 2020, which amounted to an investment of 2 trillion US Dollars.
The 1994 talent program focused on areas of interest like – Information Technology, Bio-technology, Aerospace, Materials and Manufacturing, Sensors and Optics, Energy and Environment and Basic Sciences.
Whereas, the China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), as part of the TTP, had identified some major projects which included – core electronic devices, chemical technology, polymer science, Nano technology, Robotics, computer science, high end chips, integrated circuit manufacturing, next generation broadband wireless communication, high end machine tools, pressurised water reactors (nuclear reactors), genetically modified organisms, high resolution earth observation technology, manned space flight and airplanes.
In his testimony before the permanent committee of Home Land Security, FBI assistant director, counter intelligence division, John Brown on November 19, 2019, said “Chinese government offers lucrative financial and research benefits to recruit individuals working and studying outside China who possess access to, or expertise in, high priority research fields”.
The FBI in its 2018 report titled “China – The Risk to Academia”, had spelled out four step development process laid down by Chinese Government State Council to gain technological edge – introduce – foreign technology and knowledge to China, understand – civilian and military institutions are used to understand the materials acquired from foreign countries, assimilate – foreign technology, frequently by reverse-engineering it, re-innovate – foreign technology, military aircraft, high speed trains and nuclear reactors.
The recruitment plans were well crafted by the Chinese universities, Research institutes and companies, but were supervised and controlled in the background by the Chinese government. The talent program authorized these entities to recruit experts globally with multiple incentives to work in China.
As per the FBI report the underlying stealth recruitment operation involves “targeting US university professors, administrators and researchers, spend years targeting the individual – studying their motivations, weaknesses, politics, ambitions and previous works”.
The report further adds “the talent program allows (government) to contract and recruit individuals with the hopes to acquire advanced technology without research costs. Theft of information can come from current or former employees, business partners, consultants, contractors, temporary hires, foreign agents, suppliers or even vendors who have access to propriety information”.
The criteria for selection of researchers was that they needed to be below the age of 40 years, experts and full time professionals in prestigious foreign universities, involved in Research & Development (R&D), technical, managerial, professional in an internationally known company or financial institution, entrepreneur holding Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) or key technologies and possess overseas experience.
Another un-noticeable trap in the TTP recruitment process is that “it offers competitive salaries, state-of-the-art research facilities, and honorific titles, luring both Chinese overseas talent and foreign experts alike to bring their knowledge and experience or that of advisors and colleagues to China”.
Upon selection to the program, the selectee are paid 8,00,000 (annually) in RMB (Ren Min Bi or commonly known as Yuan) and can covert 50 percent of it in foreign currency, 6,00,000 Yuan (about $ 99,000) one time as resettlement cost for purchase of accommodation, and 2 million Yuan (about $3,30,000) in Start-up funding for research. The current exchange rate for One Yuan in Indian Rupee terms cost Rs 10.64, whereas the same Yuan in US Dollar terms it is just 0.14 to a US Dollar. The remuneration varies for University and other institutions.
But there is catch here, while the university or the company pays the selected candidate in Yuan’s, in the case of a Breach of Contract, or termination of a contract, the candidate will have to pay Breach Penalty in US Dollar terms. The condition is – breach penalty of US $800 to $3,000 or equivalent of 3 to 10 times the Monthly salary which is paid in RMB to the candidate. While the contract offered is lucrative for the candidate, afterwards there is no scope for any change of heart as the penalty clause is so stringent that the candidate cannot afford it.
The FBI report further states, “contracts incentivize members to lie on grant applications to US grant making agencies to set up “Shadow Labs” in China working on research identical to their US research, and, in some cases, transfer US scientist hard-earned intellectual capital. Some contracts also contain non-disclosure provisions and require Chinese government permission to terminate the agreement, giving the Chinese government significant leverage over talent recruitment.
According to another study conducted by Center for American Progress (CAP) in January 2011 titled “Rising to the challenge”, observes “some Chinese R&D spending, for example, ends up fueling academic fraud. Chinese scientists often try to lay claim to new discoveries that are bogus”. It further notes, “China’s so called ‘import, assimilate, re-innovate’ model of technology development, for example, actively drives foreign companies to share their technologies with their Chinese joint ventures in exchange for access to cheap Chinese workforce and burgeoning domestic (Chinese) market place”
It is interesting to note here is that in 2008, China employed 6,000 overseas experts, of which more than 70 were Nobel Prize Laureates or academicians from US and Europe. As per Xinhua News Agency / China Daily – sizeable of them were hired by Universities 3,380, Enterprises 1,791, Scientific research institutes 829, Financial institutes 48 and Others 41.
What is perplexing here is that the FBI had made arrests of Liu Ruopeng who studied Meta materials in Duke university in 2006 and Zhao J Hua in March 2013 for stealing Cancer related research of Prof Marshall Anderson from Wisconsin Medical College (WMC), the US administration did not wake up to the intricate shady plan to steal US patented research. The arrests were not limited to Chinese nationals alone; the FBI had even made a short film on the arrest of one Glenn Duffie Shriver who was arrested in 2010. The film narrated the threats posed by Americans abroad from foreign intelligence agencies.
