Palo Alto, California | A surge in intellectual property theft by China has prompted an unprecedented push by leaders of the “Five Eyes” intelligence network to launch a co-operation agreement with global businesses to help fight Beijing.

Such is the extent of the problem, that leaders of the Five Eyes countries – the US, Australia, the UK, Canada and New Zealand – were set on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) to gather publicly for the first time in their 77-year history. They are meeting in the global technology hub of Palo Alto, in Silicon Valley near San Francisco.