According to the FBI, in the US alone there are over 2,500 active industrial espionage cases open against China and Chinese entities. A significant number of these deal with semiconductor fabrication technology. The "investment" here is primarily theft of IP from Western companies.
According to court records, China has never stolen significant American IP and few cases against China have resulted in serious penalties.
The FBI is blowing smoke.
Prosecuting Chinese "Spies": an Empirical Analysis of the Economic Espionage Act. By Andrew Chongseh Kim. Cardozo Law Review. Vol 40:749http://cardozolawreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Kim.40.2.6.newcharts.pdf
Conclusion: This Study finds that Chinese and other Asian-Americans are disproportionately charged under the Economic Espionage Act, receive much longer sentences, and are significantly more likely to be innocent than defendants of other races. From 1997 to 2009, 17 percent of defendants charged under the act were of Chinese descent, but after 2009, that rate tripled to 52 percent. Furthermore, the average sentence for defendants with Chinese names convicted of espionage was 25 months, compared with 11 months for those with Western names. Similarly, 48 percent of defendants with Western names escaped imprisonment and received only probation—more than double the 21 percent rate of those with Chinese names.
Although it is possible that Asian-Americans are prosecuted more often because they commit espionage more often, it is also possible that they are prosecuted more often because the DOJ has focused more resources to detect and punish spying related to Asian countries and defendants and so spends fewer resources investigating espionage conducted by defendants of other races.
This Study also suggests that the DOJ is more likely to file charges prematurely, based on weak evidence, when the case involves an Asian- American defendant.
Although some of these disparities may reflect legitimate concerns over the risk of flight, they may also reflect implicit biases with regard to the loyalty of Asian-Americans to the United States.
In addition, this Article reveals that the traditional justifications for pretextual prosecutions generally do not apply to convictions of Asian-Americans originally suspected of espionage for false statements. Rather, these convictions harm the accountability of the DOJ, may serve to punish otherwise innocent minorities simply for being wrongfully profiled, and, ultimately, may force loyal Americans to refuse to cooperate with investigators for fear of being punished for false statements.
By addressing racial biases and creating more transparent processes for charging and resolving espionage cases, however, we can reduce the number of innocent Americans charged with espionage and minimize the harm caused by these unfortunate cases.
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