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Indlæser... The Scientist and the Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionageaf Mara Hvistendahl
   Ingen Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog.  siriaeve | Feb 27, 2022 |   Author Mara Hvistendahl writes about a case of agricultural industrial espionage in her book "The Scientist and the Spy". A representatives of a Chinese seed company, Dr. Robert Mo, living and working in Florida, was tasked with obtaining samples of genetically modified seeds from corn fields in the midwest in order to allow the Chinese to reverse engineer the highly productive and disease resistant seeds produced by U.S. agricultural giants like Monsanto and DuPont. These seeds were developed after years of work, at the cost of millions of dollars, and the Chinese were trying to gain the technology quickly and cheaply. Suspicion was raised when Chinese scientists, clearly out of place, were noticed crawling through Iowa corn fields. Eventually, the FBI got involved, investigating what appeared to be the theft of intellectual properties and trade secrets, and spent a couple of years tracking the suspects to make a criminal case against them. In addition to learning a few tid-bits about seed breeding, the author also shows how time consuming FBI investigations can become, and how long it can take to obtain an arrest warrant and conviction. There seemed to be a bit of a disconnect in the book however. After making the case that the Chinese agricultural company worked hard to steal U.S. technology, planting the seed in the reader's mind that this is hardly an unusual practice by the Chinese government and companies, the author goes out of her way to then point out how Chinese scientists working in the U.S. are too often racially profiled and suspected of trying to steal company secrets. I was left with the feeling that the author was questioning whether the arrest and conviction of Chinese scientist Dr. Robert Mo was only made because of his nationality, and not because of his illegal activities. That's certainly not a conclusion I had reached. (  ) rsutto22 | Jul 15, 2021 |  ) Denisenmi17 | Dec 22, 2020 | ingen anmeldelser | tilføj en anmeldelse
"A riveting true story of industrial espionage in which a Chinese-born scientist is convicted of trying to steal U.S. trade secrets, by a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction. In September 2011, sheriff's deputies in Iowa encountered three neatly dressed Asian men at a cornfield that had been leased by Monsanto to grow corn from patented hybrids. What began as a routine inquiry into potential trespassing blossomed into a federal court case that saw one of the men -- Mo Hailong, also known as Robert Mo -- plead guilty to conspiracy to steal trade secrets from U.S. agro-giants DuPont Pioneer and Monsanto on behalf of the China-based DBN Group, one of the country's largest seed companies. The Mo case was part of the U.S. government's efforts to stanch the rising flow of industrial espionage by Chinese companies -- some with the assistance of the Chinese government itself -- on American companies. And it's not an isolated one. Economic espionage costs U.S. companies billions of dollars a year in lost revenue. As former Attorney General Eric Holder once put it, "There are only two categories of companies affected by trade secret theft: Those that know they've been compromised and those that don't know it yet." Using the story of Mo and of others involved in the case, journalist Mara Hvistendahl uncovers the fascinating and disquieting phenomenon of industrial espionage as China marches toward technological domination. In The Scientist and the Spy, she shines light on U.S. efforts to combat theft of proprietary innovation and technology and delves into the efforts to slow the loss of such secrets to other nations. As technology and innovation become more and more valuable, government agencies like the FBI and companies around the world are growing increasingly concerned -- and are increasingly outspoken about -- the threats posed to Western competitiveness. General Keith Alexander, the ex-director of the National Security Agency, has described Chinese industrial espionage and cyber crimes as "the greatest transfer of wealth in history." The Scientist and the Spy explains how the easy movement of experts and ideas affects development and the important role that espionage plays in innovation, both for the spies and the spied-upon. She also asks whether the current U.S. counter-espionage strategy helps or harms the greater public good. The result is a compelling nonfiction thriller that's also a call to arms on how we should rethink the best ways to safeguard intellectual property"-- No library descriptions found. |
Current DiscussionsIngenPopulære omslag
 Google Books — Indlæser...GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)364.168Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Criminology Crimes and Offenses Crimes of propertyLC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit: (3.41)
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The most engaging part of the book for me—as someone who admittedly doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about seeds—is Hvistendahl's exploration of America's reaction to foreign industrial espionage/entrenched patterns of racist thinking and assumptions in American governmental and judicial institutions. It's interesting/amusing just how many online reviews have interpreted Hvistendahl pointing out the racialised underpinnings of how the FBI thinks about Chinese espionage activities as her somehow trying to argue that Mo was wrongly convicted, when actually what she's doing is showing how unexamined assumptions lead you astray. (Whether that's launching investigations into ethnically Chinese grad students on the basis that they travelled to China, or overlooking some people who may very well be committing espionage for China because "everyone knows" that China only employs ethnically Chinese people.) Quibbling with The Scientist and the Spy for not capeing hard enough for the U.S. government/nominally American multinational corporations is exactly the kind of siloed thinking that Hvistendahl is critiquing here—though honestly not hard enough. (