Chinese theft of American intellectual property
What they say
His campaign says he fought Chinese efforts to steal American intellectual property, particularly to protect Michigan's auto industry.
“Mike also fought Chinese efforts to steal American intellectual property, particularly working to protect Michigan’s auto industry.”
What the record shows ·
On June 6, 2013 he sponsored the Cyber Economic Espionage Accountability Act (H.R. 2281). It would have stated that cyber economic espionage should be a priority in all economic and diplomatic talks with the People's Republic of China, and directed the President to publish a list of foreign officials responsible for cyber espionage of Americans' intellectual property, bar them from visas and freeze their assets in the United States. It was referred to subcommittee and went no further. Earlier he was an original cosponsor of the Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act (H.R. 32), sponsored by fellow Michigan Republican Joe Knollenberg, which became Public Law 109-181 on March 16, 2006. Its findings state that counterfeit automobile parts, including brake pads, cost the auto industry billions of dollars in lost sales each year. As chairman, he filed his committee's April 2012 report on his cyber bill (H. Rept. 112-445). It says "China, in particular, is engaged in an extensive, day-in, day-out effort to pillage American corporate and government information." On October 8, 2012 he and the committee's top Democrat released its report on Huawei and ZTE. The committee's release calls China "a country known to aggressively steal valuable trade secrets and other sensitive data from American companies."
Limit: The 2013 bill is aimed squarely at the claim and did not advance. The 2006 law is about counterfeit goods in general and does not name China, but its findings name the auto industry, which is the part of the claim about Michigan. He also sponsored bills in 2004 and 2005 (H.R. 4986 and H.R. 2414) directing the Treasury to analyze China's exchange rate policies; they concern trade rather than intellectual property, and neither left subcommittee. The 2012 report names China but not the auto industry, and the bill it covers does not mention intellectual property. His committee's own page for its October 2012 report on Huawei and ZTE is still up, but its link to the report is dead. A Stanford library copy was read and is not cited. His sponsored bills and the 1,462 bills he cosponsored were searched by title.