Chinese visitors hit thousands of U.S. facilities for intel collection
China is one of 10 nations involved in "unrelenting" economic espionage against the U.S. government and the private sector, according to the annual report of the National Counterintelligence Executive, which is part of the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence and is staffed by senior counterintelligence and other specialists from across the national intelligence and security communities.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California.
GlobalSecurity.org
The report, released in December, said that "businessmen, scientists, engineers and academics as well as state-run security services from a large number of countries continue to target U.S. information and technology, according to information compiled during the fiscal 2007 reporting period."
"The bulk of the collection activity, however, comes from denizens of a core group of fewer than 10 countries, which includes China and Russia," the report stated.
Chinese economic espionage focuses on industrial, scientific, and technical targets.
China conducted thousands of foreign visits to U.S. facilities. for intelligence collection, including military, armament-producing centers and national laboratories.
For example, China sent 4,509 nationals to Department of Energy facilities in fiscal 2007. By contrast, India sent 2,338 and Russia sent 1,822 people to DOE facilities.
