Durbin Delivers Opening Statement During Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing On China’s Theft Of U.S. Innovation

Durbin Delivers Opening Statement During Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing On China's Theft Of U.S. Innovation

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today delivered an opening statement at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing entitled "Stealth Stealing: China's Ongoing Theft of U.S. Innovation." During his opening, Durbin condemned the Trump Administration for taking actions that harm our innovation ecosystem. President Trump has attempted to cancel grants, fire scientists, and freeze billions of dollars of National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) funding. Durbin also criticized President Trump's tariffs, which have harmed our reputation abroad and made it more difficult to counter China's global influence.

Key Quotes:

"The U.S. has long been the world's leading innovator. From the light bulb and telephone to the semiconductor and gene editing, Americans have been at the forefront of many of the world's biggest breakthroughs. But U.S. leadership in this area is never guaranteed."

"Over the last fifteen months, President Trump has repeatedly taken actions that harm our innovation ecosystem… He [President Trump] has sought to freeze university research funding for our top universities-funding that helps develop the technologies of tomorrow that allow us to maintain our innovation and economic edge."

"But that is not all. He has imposed on-again, off-again tariffs with little regard to whether they target our allies or adversaries. As a result, our nation's reputation has fallen, making it more difficult to build the coalitions and engage in the international organizations that are necessary to collectively counter China's growing global influence. And China is taking advantage of American chaos, doing whatever it takes to overtake our position as the global leader in innovation."

"Several decades ago, China launched an 'all of country' approach to use all available means to acquire foreign technology to support its efforts to become the global leader in technological innovation."

"China has engaged in economic espionage and IP theft to steal work that may have taken years to develop-at an estimated cost of between $225 and $600 billion [annually]-or more-to the U.S. economy. This affects both the economy and the jobs of hardworking Americans."

"U.S. companies have less incentive to invest in R&D and other jobs if they think China will steal their patents, copyrights, trademarks, or trade secrets."

"China's tactics are not limited to economic espionage. It also acquires IP through agreements that require companies that want to do business in China to partner with and transfer technology to Chinese companies. Once the technology has been transferred, the Chinese partner can transfer it to the Chinese government."

"A few years ago, I learned of the story of INEOS, a company which has an R&D facility in my state [Illinois] that developed a chemical which is a key building block in hundreds of applications across the medical, aerospace, environmental, and military sectors. Sinopec, a Chinese oil refiner, stole INEOS's trade secrets and began manufacturing this chemical. INEOS sued in the Chinese court system. The companies reached a settlement under which they agreed to jointly produce the chemical. Soon after, engineers working on the joint venture left to create a competing company in China using INEOS technology. INEOS's experience is not unique. And these stories always seem to result in China taking American companies' IP to create its own domestic industry."

"It should be said-and this is important-that while today's hearing focuses on IP threats from the Chinese government and its companies, China is not the only country engaging in or hosting entities engaged in IP theft. Other countries, like Russia, have done the same."

"We must ensure our efforts to address this problem are aimed at the bad actors, and we don't simply target people of Chinese descent, which is too often the reaction in these [situations]."

Video of Durbin's opening statement is available here.

Audio of Durbin's opening statement is available here.

Footage of Durbin's opening statement is available here for TV Stations.

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