In a move that recalls President Reagan's blocking of technology to the Soviet Union, which contributed to its collapse, President Trump is cracking down on China's theft of U.S. and Western technology.
The crackdown comes after decades of virtually ignoring large-scale Chinese intelligence operations targeting the U.S., reports veteran national security reporter Bill Gertz in the Asia Times.
Gertz writes that Trump "is testing China to see if the Chinese economic miracle of the last 30-plus years can continue without infusions of American know-how.
Last year, the White House published a report on "Chinese economic aggression" stating Chinese intellectual technology theft in the United States amounted to $600 billion annually.
TRENDING: St. Patrick's role on the 'external hard drive'
The Justice Department regularly announces charges related to the theft of American secrets. Last month, for example, the FBI arrested Chinese government official Zhongsan Liu on visa fraud charges. But Gertz noted the real reason for Liu's arrest was his leadership of a major Chinese government operation to obtain American technology by recruiting experts at universities.
The scheme was part of the Thousand Talents Program to recruit Chinese-Americans and others to support technology research in China.
In its latest annual report on the Chinese military, the Pentagon said Thousand Talents supports the large-scale military buildup by the People's Liberation Army.
The program, the report said, "prioritizes recruiting people of Chinese descent or recent Chinese emigrants whose recruitment the Chinese government views as necessary to Chinese scientific and technical modernization, especially with regard to defense technology."
Gertz noted that on the day of Liu's arrest, American former Defense Intelligence Agency officer Ron Hansen was sentenced to 10 years in prison for spying for China.
Former CIA counterspy Mark Kelton told Gertz the recent uncovering of Americans who spied for China is unprecedented.
"Sun Tzu's age-old wisdom that 'knowledge of the enemy's dispositions can only be obtained from other men' needs a cyber caveat," he said.
"The PRC has launched a covert assault on the U.S. across the full spectrum of intelligence activities."
Along with traditional intelligence collection, China has stolen sensitive government, trade and industrial secrets through cyberattacks, mainly carried out by People's Liberation Army Third Department.
After decades of a policy of détente, President Reagan confronted the USSR by curbing Soviet access to high technology. The U.S. also sought to depress the value of Soviet commodities on the world market. And it increased defense spending to strengthen the U.S. in negotiations and force the Soviets to divert economic resources to defense.
The Soviet Union eventually collapsed in 1991.