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The Great Heist: China’s Epic Campaign to Steal America’s Secrets
A definitive, headline-making exposé of how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has carried out the largest-scale theft of intellectual property, technology, and data in history—reshaping the global balance of power and redrawing the geopolitical map for decades to come
The Great Heist exposes China's unprecedented state-orchestrated espionage campaign to strip the United States and its allies of their economic, technological, and military edge. Through a coordinated “whole-of-society” strategy, the Chinese Communist Party has dramatically expanded its covert operations to acquire America’s most valuable innovations—stealing defense secrets and proprietary technology from companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Google, T-Mobile, and Tesla. By exploiting both human and cyber vulnerabilities, China has quietly looted the crown jewels of Western technology, saving itself trillions in R&D costs since the 1990s—with an ongoing brazenness fueled by decades of Western inaction.
Drawing on exclusive investigations and interviews with intelligence officers, corporate security teams, senior policymakers, and espionage victims, David R. Shedd and Andrew Badger reveal how industrial theft has fueled China’s meteoric rise from Third World backwater to global superpower—and present a bold strategic playbook to turn the tide in the greatest economic contest of our time.
The Great Heist exposes China's unprecedented state-orchestrated espionage campaign to strip the United States and its allies of their economic, technological, and military edge. Through a coordinated “whole-of-society” strategy, the Chinese Communist Party has dramatically expanded its covert operations to acquire America’s most valuable innovations—stealing defense secrets and proprietary technology from companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Google, T-Mobile, and Tesla. By exploiting both human and cyber vulnerabilities, China has quietly looted the crown jewels of Western technology, saving itself trillions in R&D costs since the 1990s—with an ongoing brazenness fueled by decades of Western inaction.
Drawing on exclusive investigations and interviews with intelligence officers, corporate security teams, senior policymakers, and espionage victims, David R. Shedd and Andrew Badger reveal how industrial theft has fueled China’s meteoric rise from Third World backwater to global superpower—and present a bold strategic playbook to turn the tide in the greatest economic contest of our time.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published December 2, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 9, 2026
Chilling. I didn't realize the extent to which China has built their economy through theft and at the expense of western nations, primarily the United States. Besides the staggering scope of their espionage, what was most shocking is that any Chinese national can be obligated, by law, to spy or steal on behalf of the government - regardless of their location in the world.
I hope the US government, corporations, and universities adopt their recommendations.
I hope the US government, corporations, and universities adopt their recommendations.
January 11, 2026
Reading The Great Heist felt like sitting in a cluttered room with someone telling you the wildest spy tale you’ve ever heard. Some parts made me lean in, picturing the back-and-forth between China and the US intelligence world, and at times I got lost in all the jargon. I liked the pacing more than I expected, even when it got dense, and it left me thinking about how fragile secrets really are.
January 12, 2026
A truly gripping story. Honestly, I haven’t read such an engaging, well-written, high-quality book in a long time.
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January 16, 2026There’s a reflective calm to the writing that made it easy to stay engaged.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews