Pompeo's fact-twisting China speech versus the truth

12. Mike Pompeo: China ripped off America's prized intellectual property and trade secrets.

False.

Fact check: China is a big country in terms of innovation and intellectual property (IP), and has kept strengthening the protection of scientific innovation and intellectual property. China is now among the world's leaders in terms of the scale and growth rate of innovation input. Its R&D expenditure had grown from 300.31 billion yuan in 2006 to 1.96779 trillion yuan in 2018, recording an average annual growth of 17 percent and rising from the sixth to the second in the world. China has the world's biggest number of researchers. China's IP offices have received the highest number of patent applications for nine years in a row. China has also registered rapid increase in international patent applications and grown into the world's second biggest filer of international patent applications via the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) System. The annual WIPO report recognizes China as a main driving force for intellectual property development in the world.

-- In recent years, China has continued to take effective measures, introduced a number of policies and measures to strengthen intellectual property, and intensified law enforcement and protection, which have produced remarkable results. The decision to amend the "Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China" has substantially raised the cost of infringement and violations. China has released the "Guidelines on Strengthening Reform and Innovation in Intellectual Property Trials" and the "Guidelines on Strengthening the Protection of Intellectual Property," emphasizing the need to promote coordinated advancement of intellectual property protection and enhance the overall level of protection. China has joined almost all major international intellectual property treaties. In 2019, the country scored 78.98 points in terms of public satisfaction over intellectual property protection. According to the 2019 "Business Confidence Survey" report released by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, around 60 percent of the 585 EU companies interviewed regarded that China's administrative and judicial protection of intellectual property had been significantly strengthened. The International Intellectual Property Index report released by the US Chamber of Commerce in March 2019 specifically pointed out that China has made outstanding achievements in improving the online sales environment and drug patent enforcement. In the World Bank "Doing Business 2020" report, China lifted its ranking to the 31st slot, and made to the list of the top 10 improved economies for the second year in a row.

-- The Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives of the US Congress held an antitrust hearing on July 29 this year. When asked whether they believe the Chinese government is stealing technology from American companies, the CEOs of Apple, Google, and Amazon all said that they had not experienced such cases.

-- Yahoo News quoted US government officials as saying that "US President Trump gave a secret order that gives more powers to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for cyberattacks." This secret authorization makes it easier for the CIA to conduct covert cyber operations without the White House approval. Since the secret order was signed, the CIA has implemented at least 12 operations. On March 3 this year, Chinese cyber security company Qihoo 360 discovered that APT-C-39, a cyberattack organization of the CIA, had conducted cyberattacks on China for 11 years. During this period, China's aerospace companies, scientific research institutions, petroleum industry, large internet firms and government agencies have all suffered attacks to varying degrees.