Monetizing America’s Heartland

China’s Ministry of State Security is no longer an ocean away. From Wright-Patterson and Dayton to Columbus, Toledo, Cleveland, and beyond, the modern contest for industrial, technological, and geopolitical advantage now runs directly through the American heartland. What was once viewed primarily as America’s manufacturing base has evolved into something far more strategically important: a dense ecosystem of aerospace research, advanced materials, logistics infrastructure, semiconductor development, energy systems, defense manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and next-generation mobility platforms. Where critical capability concentrates, strategic attention follows.

The Chinese Ministry of State Security understands that great power competition is no longer defined solely by military force or diplomatic presence. It is increasingly shaped by influence over supply chains, industrial capacity, research ecosystems, data, energy, transportation corridors, venture capital, and the economic infrastructure that underpins national power.

The worlds largest and most secretive intelligence agency prosecutes their intel first, 100 year science and technology strategy through opaque state-directed investment, phony front companies, academic partnerships disguised as collaboration, persistent cyber intrusions, talent recruitment initiatives with invisible cash payments, agricultural land acquisitions near sensitive military sites, cryptocurrency and money laundering schemas, dirty handed influence campaigns, narcotics and weapons trafficking, and exfiltration of sensitive data including everything from from credit card transactions, phone calls, AI model training data, trade secrets, geo-location data and controlled unclassified information (CUI). It is a sophisticated multi-domain approach to strategic infiltration designed to harvest and monetize American innovation at its source.

Ohio sits at the center of this evolving landscape. Surrounded by critical industrial states including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Virginia and Kentucky, the region represents one of the largest concentrations of manufacturing, transportation, defense-adjacent infrastructure, and technological redevelopment in the United States. From battery production and autonomous systems to aerospace engineering and advanced polymers, the modern Midwest is rapidly becoming one of the most important economic and strategic terrains in America. And increasingly, one of the most contested.

THE INDUSTRIAL BATTLESPACE

Ohio has long been viewed through the lens of America’s industrial past. Steel, manufacturing, rail, aviation, logistics, agriculture, and automotive production helped define not only the state, but the economic rise of the United States itself. Yet beneath the familiar imagery of factories and freight corridors, a far more consequential transformation has quietly taken place. Modern Ohio now sits at the intersection of aerospace, advanced materials, semiconductor development, artificial intelligence, energy systems, autonomous mobility, defense-adjacent research, and next-generation manufacturing. The American heartland is no longer simply producing goods. It is increasingly producing strategic capability.

From Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Dayton’s aerospace ecosystem to Columbus’ rapidly expanding technology corridor, Ohio has become deeply connected to the future of American industrial and national power. The region’s proximity to advanced logistics infrastructure, interstate freight networks, inland ports, rail systems, energy distribution corridors, and research universities creates a uniquely attractive environment for investment, manufacturing, and technological development. These same characteristics also create opportunities for foreign influence, economic leverage, intellectual property acquisition, supply-chain dependency, and strategic access. In the modern era, industrial ecosystems have become geopolitical terrain.

China’s leadership understands this reality well. The Chinese Communist Party and the Ministry of State Security have spent decades studying how advanced economies generate technological advantage and national resilience. Increasingly, the focus is not merely on acquiring individual technologies, but on embedding influence across entire ecosystems. Supply chains, transportation infrastructure, venture capital, battery production, telecommunications, higher education, research partnerships, logistics hubs, agricultural assets, and manufacturing platforms all represent pathways toward long-term strategic positioning. The objective is often subtle, cumulative, and economic in nature long before it becomes political or military.

What makes Ohio particularly important is its connectivity to the broader Midwest industrial corridor stretching through Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Kentucky. Together, these states form one of the largest concentrations of manufacturing capacity, transportation infrastructure, energy distribution, defense suppliers, and technological redevelopment in the Western world. As the United States attempts to rebuild critical supply chains and reindustrialize key sectors ranging from semiconductors to electric vehicles, the Midwest is rapidly re-emerging as a strategic center of gravity. And where strategic gravity forms, competition inevitably follows.

HOW CHINA MONETIZES ECOSYSTEMS

The Chinese Communist Party does not view economic engagement, industrial policy, technology acquisition, and national security as separate domains. They are interconnected instruments of state power. Over the past two decades, China has refined a comprehensive approach to influence and strategic competition that leverages state-backed capital, commercial partnerships, academic relationships, cyber operations, joint ventures, research collaboration, and supply-chain integration to advance long-term geopolitical objectives. In many cases, the goal is not immediate disruption or confrontation. It is access, dependency, leverage, and the gradual shaping of economic environments in ways favorable to Chinese strategic interests.

The Ministry of State Security operates within this broader framework using a combination of overt and covert mechanisms designed to acquire information, position influence, and reduce strategic vulnerabilities for the Chinese state. Federal investigations and counterintelligence cases across the United States have repeatedly highlighted patterns involving industrial espionage, trade-secret theft, cyber intrusions, talent recruitment initiatives, undisclosed foreign affiliations, and procurement networks targeting advanced technologies and sensitive research environments. Increasingly, these activities intersect with sectors central to the Midwest economy, including aerospace, advanced manufacturing, battery production, autonomous systems, semiconductors, telecommunications, and energy infrastructure.

Unlike traditional Cold War espionage models focused primarily on classified information, modern strategic competition often unfolds inside commercial ecosystems that appear entirely ordinary on the surface. Universities conduct joint research. Venture capital firms seek emerging technologies. Manufacturers pursue lower-cost supply chains. Agricultural land changes ownership. Technology startups pursue foreign investment. Logistics firms expand infrastructure capacity. Yet collectively, these transactions can create long-term strategic dependencies and access points that are difficult to recognize when viewed in isolation. The modern contest for influence increasingly operates through integration rather than confrontation.

This evolving model of economic and technological statecraft is particularly relevant to Ohio and the surrounding industrial corridor. As the Midwest undergoes large-scale reindustrialization tied to semiconductors, electric vehicles, energy systems, aerospace, and advanced manufacturing, the region is becoming more strategically valuable with each passing year. The same infrastructure that supports American economic renewal also creates opportunities for foreign actors seeking access to innovation, industrial capacity, data, logistics networks, and supply-chain leverage. The contest for technological advantage is no longer confined to coastal technology hubs. It now runs directly through the American interior.

BIG BUSTS IN OHIO, INDIANA, PENNSYLVANIA AND VIRGINIA

Over the past decade, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and U.S. counterintelligence agencies have steadily increased public warnings regarding Chinese espionage, intellectual property theft, cyber operations, sanctions evasion, undeclared foreign affiliations, and efforts to influence critical sectors of the American economy. Federal prosecutions and investigative actions have revealed patterns involving trade-secret theft, covert technology acquisition, research infiltration, procurement networks, cyber intrusions, and attempts to circumvent export controls tied to strategically sensitive technologies. While each case may appear isolated on its own, collectively they illustrate the scale and persistence of modern state-backed economic and technological competition.

Many of these investigations have intersected directly with sectors central to the Midwest economy. Aerospace engineering, semiconductor research, advanced materials, automotive technologies, battery development, telecommunications infrastructure, autonomous systems, biomedical innovation, and manufacturing processes have all appeared within federal counterintelligence and trade-secret enforcement actions. In several instances, investigators alleged that proprietary technologies and sensitive research developed inside American universities, corporations, and laboratories were targeted through recruitment programs, undisclosed partnerships, cyber activity, or commercial intermediaries linked to Chinese entities. The underlying concern extends beyond any single incident and instead reflects the cumulative erosion of technological advantage over time.

The challenge facing federal authorities is compounded by the reality that modern strategic competition often operates within legitimate commercial, academic, and financial environments. Research partnerships, venture investments, manufacturing agreements, supply-chain relationships, and international collaboration are foundational components of the global economy. Yet adversarial states can exploit these same systems to acquire access, visibility, influence, and technological advantage in ways that are difficult to distinguish from ordinary economic activity. Counterintelligence officials increasingly describe this environment as one in which the lines between commerce, technology, academia, and national security have become progressively blurred.

For Ohio and the surrounding Midwest, these concerns carry growing relevance as the region becomes more deeply integrated into sectors considered critical to future geopolitical competition. Semiconductor investments, aerospace research, logistics infrastructure, battery production, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, and energy systems are rapidly reshaping the economic landscape of the American interior. At the same time, these same sectors attract strategic attention from foreign actors seeking access to innovation ecosystems and industrial capabilities that underpin national power. The result is a new reality in which economic development, technological competition, and national security are increasingly inseparable.

UNIVERSITIES, RESEARCH, AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

Modern research universities increasingly function as engines of economic development, technological innovation, and strategic capability. Across Ohio and the broader Midwest, institutions such as Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Cincinnati, Wright State University, Purdue University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Michigan are deeply connected to advanced research in aerospace, artificial intelligence, robotics, biomedical engineering, materials science, semiconductors, energy systems, and next-generation manufacturing. These institutions help drive the technological ecosystems that now define regional competitiveness and national power.

For China, universities represent more than academic institutions. They are gateways into innovation networks, talent pipelines, intellectual property development, federally funded research, and emerging technologies with both commercial and military applications. Over the past decade, federal agencies have repeatedly warned that foreign influence efforts tied to the Chinese Communist Party have targeted research environments through undisclosed affiliations, talent recruitment programs, joint research initiatives, visiting scholars, cyber intrusions, and strategic partnerships designed to facilitate technology transfer. The objective is often not the theft of a single breakthrough, but long-term access to the broader ecosystem where innovation occurs.

The challenge is compounded by the inherently open nature of Western academic systems. Universities are designed to encourage collaboration, global engagement, investment, and the free exchange of ideas. Yet many of the technologies shaping the future of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, quantum computing, advanced materials, biotechnology, aerospace engineering, and energy infrastructure also possess dual-use applications with national security implications. This creates persistent tension between academic openness, economic opportunity, and strategic risk. Increasingly, research institutions have become contested terrain within the broader geopolitical competition between the United States and China.

Ohio’s growing role in semiconductor manufacturing, aerospace research, battery technology, and advanced industrial development only increases the strategic relevance of its research ecosystem. As federal investment accelerates through reshoring initiatives and domestic technology programs, the Midwest is becoming more deeply integrated into the future of American industrial and defense capability. Where strategic technologies are developed, competition for access inevitably follows. In the modern era, the laboratory, the startup incubator, and the research campus have become extensions of the geopolitical landscape.

CYBER, DATA, AND INFRASTRUCTURE ACCESS

The modern industrial economy is no longer defined solely by factories, warehouses, and transportation corridors. It is increasingly defined by interconnected digital systems that manage military operations, logistics, energy distribution, manufacturing automation, communications, financial transactions, supply chains, and critical infrastructure. Across Ohio and the broader Midwest, rail systems, power grids, water facilities, airports, hospitals, industrial plants, and manufacturing platforms are now deeply integrated into networked environments that generate enormous volumes of operational and commercial data. The industrial heartland has become both a physical and digital battlespace.

Federal officials have repeatedly warned that Chinese cyber operations increasingly focus on strategic pre-positioning inside critical infrastructure networks rather than conventional data theft alone. Campaigns attributed to Chinese state-linked actors have targeted telecommunications providers, transportation systems, utilities, manufacturing environments, and other sectors considered essential to national resilience during periods of crisis or conflict. The objective is often long-term access, persistence, mapping of vulnerabilities, and the ability to shape or disrupt systems if geopolitical tensions escalate. Modern cyber operations are designed not simply to steal information, but to establish strategic footholds inside the connective tissue of advanced societies.

This evolving threat landscape carries particular significance for the Midwest due to the region’s concentration of military bases, logistics infrastructure, manufacturing capacity, freight movement, and energy distribution systems. Ohio sits within one of the most interconnected transportation and industrial corridors in North America, linking rail hubs, interstate highways, inland shipping routes, distribution centers, aerospace manufacturing, automotive production, and energy networks across multiple states. As factories become smarter, vehicles become connected, and supply chains become increasingly automated, the attack surface expands alongside economic modernization. The same systems that improve efficiency can also create new forms of vulnerability.

The convergence of industrial infrastructure and digital dependency is reshaping the nature of geopolitical competition itself. Great power rivalry no longer unfolds exclusively through military deployments or diplomatic signaling. It increasingly operates through data access, telecommunications infrastructure, cyber persistence, logistics visibility, and the ability to influence the systems that underpin economic and societal stability. In this environment, America’s industrial heartland represents far more than manufacturing capacity alone. It represents strategic infrastructure whose security, resilience, and technological integrity are becoming central to national power in the twenty-first century.

America’s Northeastern Aerospace and Air Defense Corridor

From Wright-Patterson and Youngstown to Langley, Hanscom, Andrews, and beyond, the eastern United States contains one of the world’s most concentrated networks of aerospace power, logistics infrastructure, research ecosystems, and strategic air operations. As geopolitical competition increasingly targets industrial capacity, mobility corridors, defense innovation, and critical infrastructure, the American interior and northeastern seaboard have become deeply interconnected terrain within the modern battlespace of great power competition.

SOURCE: PWK International

AGRICULTURE, LAND, AND STRATEGIC PROXIMITY

Agriculture is often discussed primarily in economic terms, yet food production, water access, fertilizer supply, transportation infrastructure, and farmland ownership also represent elements of national security. Across Ohio and the surrounding Midwest, vast agricultural networks connect rail systems, river corridors, food processing facilities, distribution hubs, energy infrastructure, and export markets into one of the most productive food ecosystems in the world. What appears at first glance to be rural economic terrain increasingly carries strategic significance within a period of intensifying geopolitical competition and supply-chain instability.

Concerns surrounding foreign ownership of agricultural land and strategic real estate have grown steadily in recent years as policymakers and federal agencies examine how adversarial states may seek proximity to critical infrastructure, military installations, energy systems, telecommunications assets, and transportation corridors. While much of the public attention has focused on isolated land purchases near sensitive sites, the broader issue is less about any single transaction and more about cumulative access, geographic positioning, infrastructure adjacency, and long-term leverage. Strategic competition increasingly unfolds through ownership, investment, logistics, and economic integration rather than overt confrontation alone.

For China, food security and resource access represent long-term national priorities shaped by population size, industrial demand, water constraints, and geopolitical risk. Chinese firms and state-linked entities have pursued agricultural investments, supply-chain partnerships, food processing interests, and commodity access around the world as part of a broader effort to secure economic resilience and strategic flexibility. Within the United States, these concerns intersect with debates surrounding farmland acquisition, biotechnology, seed development, food processing, and the role of foreign capital inside critical sectors of the American economy. The Midwest naturally sits at the center of this conversation due to its immense agricultural and logistical importance.

Ohio’s strategic value lies not only in manufacturing and technology, but also in its position inside a connected regional system that links industrial production, energy distribution, transportation infrastructure, and agricultural output across the American interior. From rail corridors and river access to food processing and chemical production, the state occupies a critical node within the broader national supply chain. As geopolitical competition increasingly targets ecosystems rather than isolated assets, even seemingly ordinary infrastructure can acquire strategic importance. In the modern era, farmland, freight routes, processing facilities, and industrial corridors collectively form part of the broader architecture of national power.

BATTERIES, RARE EARTHS, AND INDUSTRIAL DEPENDENCY

The future of industrial power increasingly depends on control over the materials and supply chains that enable advanced technologies. Electric vehicles, aerospace systems, robotics, telecommunications equipment, semiconductors, renewable energy platforms, defense technologies, and artificial intelligence infrastructure all rely upon complex networks of minerals, refined materials, battery components, magnets, and industrial processing capabilities. While the United States retains enormous strengths in innovation, manufacturing, and engineering, China has spent decades building dominant positions across many of the supply chains now considered essential to twenty-first century economic and strategic competition.

This dynamic is particularly relevant to Ohio and the surrounding Midwest as the region undergoes rapid transformation tied to electric vehicles, battery manufacturing, semiconductor investment, and advanced industrial redevelopment. New facilities, reshoring initiatives, and next-generation manufacturing platforms are helping reposition the Midwest as a center of modern industrial production. Yet many of the critical inputs powering this transition — including lithium processing, graphite, rare earth refining, battery components, and advanced magnet production — remain heavily concentrated within Chinese-controlled or Chinese-influenced supply chains. The result is a complex strategic paradox: America may increasingly manufacture the products of the future while remaining dependent on foreign-controlled industrial ecosystems upstream.

China’s dominance in rare earth processing and battery supply chains did not emerge accidentally. It reflects decades of coordinated industrial policy, strategic investment, state-backed financing, infrastructure development, and long-term economic planning designed to secure leverage over sectors considered critical to future global competitiveness. Rather than focusing exclusively on finished products, Beijing concentrated on controlling the refining capacity, industrial processing infrastructure, and supply-chain bottlenecks that sit beneath the visible layers of the global economy. This approach has provided China with significant influence over industries now central to energy transition policies, advanced manufacturing, defense modernization, and technological development worldwide.

For the American Midwest, the implications extend far beyond economics alone. Batteries, advanced materials, semiconductors, and industrial supply chains are increasingly intertwined with national security, military readiness, transportation systems, energy resilience, and technological sovereignty. Ohio’s emergence as part of the next-generation manufacturing corridor therefore places the state directly inside a broader geopolitical contest over who controls the industrial foundations of the future. The challenge facing the United States is not simply rebuilding factories. It is determining whether the underlying systems supporting those factories remain strategically independent or increasingly vulnerable to external leverage and influence.

Anduril Industries and the Reindustrialization of the American Arsenal

Ohio’s growing strategic relevance is also reflected in the emergence of next-generation defense manufacturing programs tied to autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, aerospace, and advanced weapons production. In 2025, defense technology company Anduril Industries announced plans to construct “Arsenal-1,” a massive hyperscale manufacturing facility near Rickenbacker International Airport outside Columbus. The project represents nearly $1 billion in private investment and is expected to create more than 4,000 jobs tied to advanced defense manufacturing and autonomous systems production.

The facility is designed to support large-scale production of autonomous military systems, drones, sensors, interceptors, and next-generation defense technologies as part of broader efforts to rebuild the American defense industrial base. The selection of Ohio reflects the state’s growing importance within aerospace, logistics, advanced manufacturing, semiconductor development, and military-adjacent industrial ecosystems. Located near critical transportation infrastructure and within reach of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the Air Force Research Laboratory, Arsenal-1 further reinforces the Midwest’s re-emergence as a strategic center of gravity for American industrial and defense modernization.

LOGISTICS, TRANSPORTATION, AND THE CONNECTED MIDWEST

The American Midwest has long served as the logistical backbone of the United States. Rail networks, interstate highways, inland waterways, freight terminals, distribution centers, pipelines, airports, and manufacturing corridors converge throughout the region to create one of the most interconnected transportation ecosystems in the world. Ohio sits near the center of this network, linking the East Coast to the interior, the Great Lakes to the South, and industrial production to national and global markets. In the twenty-first century economy, logistics infrastructure represents far more than commerce alone. It represents strategic mobility, economic resilience, and national power.

As global supply chains have evolved, control over transportation corridors and distribution systems has become increasingly important within geopolitical competition. Modern economies depend upon uninterrupted flows of components, energy, data, agricultural products, industrial materials, and manufactured goods moving across complex interconnected networks. Even minor disruptions can ripple across entire sectors. China’s strategic planners have spent decades studying these dynamics through initiatives tied to maritime trade, infrastructure financing, shipping access, industrial integration, and supply-chain positioning. While much of the public focus has centered on ports and overseas infrastructure projects, the broader strategic logic applies equally to inland logistics ecosystems and domestic distribution networks.

The Midwest’s growing role in advanced manufacturing and reshoring only increases the strategic importance of its transportation architecture. Semiconductor development, battery production, aerospace manufacturing, automotive transformation, energy infrastructure, and industrial redevelopment all rely upon highly efficient movement of materials and components across multiple states. Ohio’s proximity to major freight rail systems, intermodal hubs, airports, river access, and interstate corridors creates enormous economic advantages while simultaneously elevating the region’s strategic significance. Increasingly, the systems that move goods also move data, visibility, operational intelligence, and economic leverage.

What emerges is a picture of the Midwest not as a collection of isolated states, but as a connected industrial ecosystem stretching through Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. Factories, research institutions, logistics platforms, energy systems, and transportation corridors operate together as part of a larger strategic network supporting both the American economy and the nation’s defense industrial base. As geopolitical competition intensifies, these interconnected systems become increasingly attractive targets for influence, cyber access, economic leverage, and strategic positioning. The modern contest for power is no longer confined to coastlines or overseas theaters. It increasingly runs through the rail lines, freight hubs, industrial parks, and transportation corridors of the American interior.

1. The Midwest Has Become Strategic Terrain

Ohio and the surrounding industrial corridor are no longer viewed solely as manufacturing regions. They now represent critical ecosystems tied to aerospace, semiconductors, energy systems, logistics, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing.

2. China’s Strategy Focuses on Ecosystems, Not Isolated Targets

Modern Chinese influence and intelligence efforts increasingly seek long-term access to supply chains, research environments, infrastructure, industrial capacity, and economic systems rather than singular acts of disruption.

3. Economic Integration Can Create Strategic Vulnerability

Supply-chain dependency, industrial investment, logistics access, technology partnerships, and infrastructure integration may generate long-term leverage that extends beyond ordinary commerce.

4. Universities and Research Institutions Are Central Battlegrounds

Advanced research ecosystems connected to aerospace, AI, semiconductors, robotics, biotechnology, and materials science are increasingly intertwined with national security and geopolitical competition.

5. Cyber Operations Now Target Critical Infrastructure

Modern industrial systems rely on interconnected digital networks that manage transportation, manufacturing, utilities, communications, and logistics, expanding the strategic importance of cyber access and infrastructure resilience.

6. Great Power Competition Is Increasingly Domestic

The contest for geopolitical and technological advantage is no longer confined to foreign theaters. It now runs through factories, laboratories, rail systems, farmland, data networks, and industrial infrastructure across the American interior.

CONCLUSION

The modern contest between the United States and China is no longer confined to distant oceans, overseas military bases, or diplomatic summits. It increasingly unfolds inside industrial parks, research universities, logistics hubs, semiconductor facilities, agricultural systems, transportation corridors, and the interconnected economic infrastructure that powers modern society. Ohio and the broader Midwest now sit directly within this evolving arena of competition. What was once viewed primarily as America’s manufacturing base has re-emerged as a strategic ecosystem central to aerospace, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, energy systems, mobility platforms, and next-generation industrial development.

The challenge posed by China’s long-term strategic approach is not defined solely by espionage or cyber intrusions, though both remain significant concerns. It is the cumulative integration of influence, investment, supply-chain positioning, technological access, infrastructure dependency, research partnerships, and economic leverage across critical sectors of the American economy. In many cases, these activities unfold gradually, commercially, and often legally, making the broader strategic picture difficult to recognize when viewed through isolated events alone. The result is a form of competition measured less by immediate confrontation and more by persistent positioning inside the systems that generate national power.

Federal investigations, counterintelligence cases, and Department of Justice prosecutions demonstrate that concerns surrounding technology transfer, industrial espionage, cyber activity, and strategic access are not theoretical. They are active, ongoing, and increasingly connected to sectors critical to America’s future economic and national security posture. From aerospace research and advanced manufacturing to biotechnology, artificial intelligence, logistics, and energy infrastructure, the same ecosystems driving American reindustrialization are simultaneously becoming focal points of geopolitical competition.

The Midwest is no longer peripheral to the future of global power competition. It is becoming one of its primary terrains. As the United States rebuilds industrial capacity and reshapes critical supply chains, the defining question may no longer be whether America can manufacture the technologies of the future, but whether the underlying systems supporting that future remain strategically independent, resilient, and secure from external leverage. Great power competition has arrived deep inside the American interior. And increasingly, it is monetizing the heartland.

SOURCES, CREDITS AND ACKNOWLKEDGEMENTS

{A} China in Ohio is an Expert Network Report researched and written by PWK International Managing Director David E. Tashji May 18, 2026. (C) 2026 PWK International.

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{B} Americas Manufacturing Corridor | Ohio Map Credit: PWK International May 15, 2026.

Additional Sources

1. Chinese MSS Officer Targeted GE Aviation in Ohio

One of the most important economic espionage cases ever prosecuted in the United States. Chinese Ministry of State Security officer Yanjun Xu targeted GE Aviation and Ohio’s aerospace ecosystem in an effort to steal advanced aviation technology.

DOJ | Chinese Intelligence Officer Charged with Economic Espionage Involving Theft of Trade Secrets from Leading U.S. Aviation Companies

2. Chinese MSS Officer Convicted in Cincinnati

This follow-on DOJ case documents the conviction of Yanjun Xu and reinforces the strategic significance of Ohio’s aerospace and defense-adjacent industrial base.

DOJ | Jury Convicts Chinese Official of Espionage Crimes Involving Cincinnati Company

3. Five Chinese Military Hackers Charged in Pennsylvania

A landmark cyber-espionage case involving PLA officers accused of targeting U.S. steel, nuclear, and solar industries headquartered in Western Pennsylvania.

DOJ | U.S. Charges Five Chinese Military Hackers for Cyber Espionage Against U.S. Corporations

4. FBI Summary of Chinese Military Cyber Operations

The FBI’s public explanation of the Pennsylvania cyber-espionage case provides additional context on how Chinese state-linked actors targeted American industrial sectors.

FBI | Five Chinese Military Hackers Charged with Cyber Espionage Against U.S.

5. Former CIA Officer Convicted of Espionage for China

Virginia-based espionage case involving former CIA officer Kevin Mallory, who transmitted classified information to Chinese intelligence actors.

DOJ | Jury Convicts Former CIA Officer of Espionage

6. Former CIA Officer Sentenced for Espionage

The sentencing details further highlight federal concerns surrounding Chinese targeting of former U.S. intelligence personnel.

DOJ | Former CIA Officer Sentenced to Prison for Espionage

7. Former CIA Officer Jerry Chun Shing Lee Case

A major Virginia espionage case involving a former CIA officer accused of conspiring to provide national defense information to the People’s Republic of China.

DOJ | Former CIA Officer Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Espionage

8. Chinese Economic Espionage and Trade Secret Theft Report

The National Counterintelligence and Security Center outlines how China systematically targets U.S. industry, research institutions, and emerging technologies.

NCSC | Protecting Critical and Emerging U.S. Technologies from Foreign Threats

9. FBI Director Warning on Chinese Economic Espionage

Former FBI Director Christopher Wray publicly warned that Chinese economic espionage represented one of the largest long-term threats to American innovation and industrial competitiveness.

FBI | Director Wray Remarks at the Hudson Institute

10. Volt Typhoon Infrastructure Warning

CISA, NSA, and the FBI warned that Chinese cyber actors linked to Volt Typhoon targeted U.S. critical infrastructure for strategic pre-positioning.

CISA | PRC State-Sponsored Cyber Actor Living off the Land to Evade Detection

11. Chinese National Charged in Agricultural Trade Secret Theft

A significant case involving theft of agricultural technology and trade secrets tied to Midwest food and biotech ecosystems.

DOJ | Chinese National Charged with Economic Espionage Involving Theft of Trade Secrets from Agricultural Company

12. Scientists Indicted in Pennsylvania Biopharma Theft Case

Federal prosecutors alleged scientists stole biopharmaceutical trade secrets to benefit a China-based company tied to state-supported interests.

DOJ | Scientists Indicted for Allegedly Stealing Biopharmaceutical Trade Secrets

14. House Select Committee on the CCP Report

Congressional analysis documenting China’s industrial strategy, technology acquisition efforts, and economic leverage campaigns.

U.S. House Select Committee on the CCP

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

About PWK International

PWK International is a research-forward strategic advisory and consulting firm focused on the intersection of defense innovation, advanced technology, national security, and the business of government. Founded by David Tashji, the firm delivers informed insights, strategic analysis, and mission-oriented consulting services to clients operating across defense, aerospace, intelligence, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, autonomy, and emerging technology sectors.

Drawing from direct experience supporting U.S. government modernization, weapons systems development, aerospace programs, defense acquisition, and technology commercialization efforts, PWK International provides strategic guidance to corporations, investors, startups, government organizations, expert networks, and industry leaders navigating rapidly evolving geopolitical and technological environments. The firm’s work spans topics including great power competition, strategic forecasting, AI-enabled warfare, industrial policy, defense ecosystems, cyber operations, venture-backed defense innovation, and advanced manufacturing.

Through its Informed Insights publication series, PWK International publishes analytical reports exploring how emerging technologies, geopolitical competition, economic influence, industrial ecosystems, and national security trends are reshaping the modern strategic landscape.