Matt Gaetz, Neal Dunn Focus on Chinese Government's Role in Corporate Espionage

While Congress is expected to stay out of Washington D.C. for the rest of the month, two North Florida Republican freshmen are planning to hold a public hearing on how China is engaged in corporate espionage and violating intellectual property. 

Neal Dunn and Matt Gaetz

U.S. Reps. Neal Dunn, R-Fla., and Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., announced at the end of last week they will hold a hearing on   “Wanton Loot: How China Is Stealing Ideas from American Entrepreneurs” at Florida State University (FSU) in Tallahassee on Wednesday, August 30. 

Gaetz will convene the hearing and pointed to how Chinese nationals stole technology from Bing Energy, which is based in Tallahassee, to launch their own energy company in their native country. Every year, American companies lose around $225 billion through intellectual property theft. 

“There are too many signs to ignore the likelihood that the Chinese government is behind blatant acts of thievery of technology and systems designed in the United States,” Gaetz said on Friday. “One glaring example took place right in Tallahassee, and we’re going to hear the details so we can fight back to protect our ideas as much as our people, communities, businesses, and borders in the future.”

“We in Congress cannot sit by and watch our biggest global competitor try to get an edge by stealing from our creative, inventive and entrepreneurial society to profit from the work being done in the United States,” said Dunn.