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Federal officials have labeled Boston a major target of Chinese spies who are looking to steal trade and technology secrets from the US.
US Assistant Attorney General John Demers, who leads a federal force against Chinese espionage in America, said Massachusetts had become a focus of his team's work, the Associated Press reported.
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Massachusetts is home to top-ranked universities including Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It also hosts military contractors such as weapon maker Raytheon and defense system provider Mercury Systems.As part of the China Initiative, officials said they had met with local companies and colleges last week to encourage them to bring suspected instances of espionage to the attention of federal investigators.
Lelling said the large number of Chinese nationals living in Boston also made the city a potential espionage target, but officials added that most were in the US for legitimate reasons, such as study.
Technology workers should keep a close eye on Wang?
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday April 10 2019, @05:03AM (6 children)
If they were operating in vacuum, maybe. But they're not, and the US (and other first world nations) foolishly handed them the keys to the kingdom. They've learned well. This isn't the 1400s anymore. "Burning their own fleets" is not only recognized to be suicidal, it may be physically impossible at this point.
And with technology growing into the fields it has, the way it has, under control of whom, they may very well succeed in suppression; I am watching their "social credit" experiment with jaw-dropping horror, knowing it's only a matter of time before this spreads worldwide. We're in the midst of an authoritarian takeover in the first world, and this sort of thing is completely irresistible to their kind. At some point, yes, rebellion will become impossible. Orwell was not only correct, he was an optimist.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Wednesday April 10 2019, @10:54AM (2 children)
They've learned little and mostly made the wrong conclusions. The individual empowerment that follows the development of disruptive technologies is what drives progress and yet it's exactly what the PRC are trying to suppress when introducing more and more social controls of this sort.
The Chinese already earned themselves a reputation in Asia of not being particularly creative. Give a generation or two. Those authoritarian polices will backfire as neighboring nations start out pacing them. It happened to the Soviets. It's happening to the US. It will happen to the Chinese.
compiling...
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday April 10 2019, @06:53PM (1 child)
I hope so, because we've passed a technological tipping point, or are close to doing so, that will make that disruption basically impossible. Imagine that for a moment.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by RamiK on Thursday April 11 2019, @02:04AM
AI automation will screw the leadership's power base like it does in the west. They can have all the drones and mass surveillance they want. Once unemployment spreads they'll gradually lose popular support and all it will take is one ambitious general vying for power to join hands with a capable but disenfranchised engineer and use their weapons against them. It's precisely why I strongly dislike 1984. Even without considering the dependence on skilled personal to move the gears, people that spend their time brutally suppressing the population wouldn't shy from attempting to at least assassinate their superiors to move up the ranks or start a civil war when they get passed for promotion.
Just because the underclasses aren't cohesive and are easy to divide and conquer doesn't mean the upper classes are one mind. Read your Shakespeare. Even if it ends up with one guy holding all the cards, their kids will have a war of inheritance that disrupts social order. As soon as they hit flat growth like everyone else, they'll get back-stabbed by their friends and brothers members. Oldest story in the book.
compiling...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 11 2019, @12:24PM (2 children)
Sounds like they found a different way to burn their fleet. Not really feeling the more cosmopolitan China here.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday April 11 2019, @04:28PM (1 child)
It's a race against time: will their "fleet" "burn" before or after they take over the planet and/or export this particular trendy new form of fleet burning? Given the reach, scope, ubiquity, and speed of technology, I would not bet on it...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday April 11 2019, @11:27PM
You got me there.