Five Eyes chiefs condemn China’s unprecedented IP theft

Intelligence chiefs from the secretive Five Eyes partnership have appeared together in public for the first time to condemn China’s unprecedented theft of intellectual property.

Intelligence chiefs from the Five Eyes partnership have appeared together in public for the first time to condemn China for what ASIO boss Mike Burgess says is the biggest theft of intellectual property in history.

The extraordinary joint appearance came at a summit in California to shine a spotlight on the Chinese government’s rampant espionage and hacking efforts and launch a new operation with the private sector to safeguard their innovations.

Just weeks out from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s expected trip to Beijing to meet President Xi Jinping, which will end a lengthy diplomatic freeze, Mr Burgess issued a rare rebuke of China in a discussion led by former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“The behaviour we’re talking about here goes well beyond traditional espionage,” he said.

“We have the Chinese government engaged in the most sustained, scaled and sophisticated theft of intellectual property and acquisition of expertise that is unprecedented in human history.”

“That’s why we’re together and that’s why I’m, as Australia’s security service head, calling that out … That threat really needs to be drawn out, awareness raised, so we can do something about it.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray said there was “no greater threat to innovation than the Chinese government”, and that the summit was a measure of how seriously the Five Eyes countries – the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK – was taking that threat.

The FBI opens a new investigation into Chinese industrial theft every 12 hours after a 1300 per cent increase in recent years.

He said China’s state-sponsored hacking program was bigger than every other country combined – on top of its traditional human espionage operations – which was set to be amplified by artificial intelligence.

MI5 Director General Ken McCallum echoed Mr Wray’s warning about AI, although he said the new technology also presented new opportunities, such as allowing the British Security Service to automatically review thousands of hours of audio it collected each month.

Mr Burgess said a mass facial biometrics scheme could “make our job easier” but that ASIO did not want to risk its social licence to operate by rushing to implement new surveillance technologies.

“We’re subject to the rule of law and we live in a democracy that we’re trying to protect,” he said.