World News

I immediately went to the sections on these two topics and was not disappointed.

Rampant US Theft of Intellectual Property and Data

The U.S. frequently accuses other members of stealing its intellectual property. However, in fact, the U.S. has been stealing other members’ trade secrets, data and undisclosed information through various means for a long time, seriously violating TRIPS Agreement’s basic principles on intellectual property protection, failing to fulfill its obligations under Article 39 of the TRIPS Agreement on the protection of undisclosed information, and posing a serious threat to the national or regional security of the victim members.

With a wide range of targets and high frequency of attacking, cyber attacks and telephone surveillance are major methods for the U.S. to steal other members’ secrets, data and information. According to statistics results from National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center of China, in the first half of 2021, the center captured about 23.07 million malicious program samples, with daily average transmission exceeding 5.82 million times, involving about 208,000 malicious program families, about half of which originated from the U.S. In September 2022, Northwestern Polytechnical University of China was attacked by the U.S. National Security Agency. The university’s core technical data, including critical network device configuration, network management data and operation and maintenance data, were stolen during the attack. Investigations have unveiled that the U.S. used 41 special cyber attack weapons for the attack. What’s more, the Tailored Access Operations under the U.S. National Security Agency has carried out tens of thousands of malicious cyber attacks on cyber targets in China over the years, taking control of relevant network equipment and obtaining large amounts of data. According to reports, the U.S. has also conducted monitoring and information theft of global broadcasting, telecommunications, and the Internet through related intelligence-gathering projects.

Rampant US Biopiracy

American biotechnology companies are notorious for their rampant engagement in “biopiracy”. Relying on its economic and technological advantages, American biotechnology companies commercially exploit genetic resources obtained at low cost from developing countries and apply for patent protection, so as to gain huge profits. In 1997, an agriculture enterprise in the U.S. applied for 20 patents after hybridizing basmati rice with an American long indica rice, which severely restricted the export of basmati rice from India. The top agriculture enterprises of the U.S. took advantage of the ineffective enforcement of international intellectual property rules and the weakness of developing members in the protection and utilization of intellectual property rights, wantonly stealing biological genetic resources, appropriating a large number of local excellent crop trait genes of developing members. For example, the U.S. applied a large number of patents around the world on the genes for high-yield traits of soybeans originating from China, and then monopolized the market by abusing its technology and market advantages. After the completion of patent registration, the U.S. agriculture enterprises in turn charged high patent fees from many members, including the members where the patented genetic resources originating from. Such biopiracy conduct seriously damages the intellectual property rights and food security of the developing members.