Commentary: U.S. accusation of "cybertheft" against China does not hold water

BEIJING, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The "cybertheft" narrative trumped up by U.S. politicians to belittle China's efforts and achievements in the scientific and technological field does not hold water but betrays their selective blindness and arrogance.

Nathaniel Fick, the U.S. ambassador at large for Cyberspace and Digital Policy, has lately urged Washington to prevent China from stealing intellectual property to gain an advantage in artificial intelligence (AI) and other crucial technologies.

Failing to give any specific proof, Fick claimed it's imperative to form a large coalition to counter the concocted "cybertheft," an allegation only to expose his arrogance and ignorance.

China's remarkable scientific and technological development brooks no disparagement given the hard work of generations of Chinese researchers and ever-expanding international cooperation under its long-standing opening-up policy.

China has continuously increased investment in scientific research and promoted scientific and technological innovation and intellectual property protection, and has made remarkable achievements. In 2022, China's total expenditure on research and development (R&D) amounted to nearly 3.09 trillion yuan (456 billion U.S. dollars), up 10.4 percent year on year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

The total number of R&D personnel in China reached 7.13 million in 2019, 1.3 times that of 2015, which ranked first in the world since 2013, according to the China Science and Technology Talent Development Report 2020 by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

China rose to 11th on the Global Innovation Index 2022, up from 12th in 2021, said the World Intellectual Property Organization. According to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a security think tank, China has a "stunning lead" in 37 out of 44 critical and emerging technologies as Western democracies lose global competition for research output.

The number of high-tech enterprises in China has grown from 49,000 in 2012 to 330,000 in 2022, representing a 5.7-fold growth. The same year also saw the R&D investment of these enterprises account for over three-quarters of the total across society.

"You ask me where China's technological progress is coming from. It's coming from terrific entrepreneurs who are getting the benefit of huge government investments in basic science. It's coming from an educational system that's privileging excellence, concentrating on science and technology," said former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

In recent years, China has emerged as a pioneer in AI development. By 2022, China had secured the top position globally in terms of the number of patent applications filed for AI technologies, with the scale of the core AI industry surpassing 500 billion yuan (70.66 billion dollars), while more than 4,200 major enterprises operated, comprising approximately 16 percent of the global total.

"I've seen first-hand some of the innovations that could contribute to global progress," said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, during his visit to China this month.

China's acceleration of innovative development is in the interest of developing countries and the world, he said.

China has also introduced foreign technology and intellectual property rights on the basis of abiding by relevant laws and regulations and has always carried out overseas resource cooperation in line with the principles of equality and win-win, so as to achieve mutual benefit and common development.

Technical cooperation and other economic cooperation, trade exchange between Chinese and foreign enterprises are completely contractual behaviors based on voluntary principles, from which they have benefited in real terms.

As a matter of fact, U.S. companies have made huge gains in China from technology transfer and licensing. According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, China paid 7.95 billion dollars in 2016 and 8.76 billion dollars in 2017 to the United States for the use of intellectual property.

Thumbing their noses at or indulging in unwarranted smears against China could by no means wobble China's commitment to its scientific and technological drive, nor will the fabricated "cybertheft" work to alienate China from the sober-minded around the world.