US accuses Russia and China of industrial espionage

A US government intelligence report has accused China and Russia of being the world’s “most active and persistent” perpetrators of economic espionage, The Wall Street Journal reported. “The nations of China and Russia, through their intelligence services and through their corporations, are attacking our research and development,” said US counterespionage chief Robert Byrant, speaking at an event to mark the launch of a new intelligence report last Thursday. “This is a national, long-term, strategic threat to the United States of America,” he added. The report said that most of the industrial espionage occurred online, and was aimed at the information technology, military, clean energy and medical technology industries. Naming China and Russia as the top perpetrators is an unusually dramatic move for the US intelligence community that analysts say could harm US relations with the countries.