China’s technological rise has been one of the United States’ biggest preoccupations for nearly a decade, across both Democratic and Republican administrations. In their new book, The Great Heist, David Shedd and Andrew Badger—former officials at the Defense Intelligence Agency—detail the years of espionage that enabled that rise. Through court documents, interviews, and even fictional scenarios, the pair outline the scale of China’s theft of U.S. intellectual property, aiming to galvanize the national conversation and warn Washington to act before it’s too late.

The problem, however, is that the current Trump administration appears to be moving largely in the opposite direction—allowing the sale of some advanced semiconductor chips to China, removing key officials at the Commerce Department dedicated to combating the threats posed by Chinese technology, dismantling much of the U.S. cyber posture against Chinese hacking, and publishing a national defense strategy that downplays the China threat.

China’s technological rise has been one of the United States’ biggest preoccupations for nearly a decade, across both Democratic and Republican administrations. In their new book, The Great Heist, David Shedd and Andrew Badger—former officials at the Defense Intelligence Agency—detail the years of espionage that enabled that rise. Through court documents, interviews, and even fictional scenarios, the pair outline the scale of China’s theft of U.S. intellectual property, aiming to galvanize the national conversation and warn Washington to act before it’s too late.

The Great Heist: China’s Epic Campaign to Steal America’s Secrets, David R. Shedd and Andrew Badger, Harper, 368 pp., $32.50, December 2025

The problem, however, is that the current Trump administration appears to be moving largely in the opposite direction—allowing the sale of some advanced semiconductor chips to China, removing key officials at the Commerce Department dedicated to combating the threats posed by Chinese technology, dismantling much of the U.S. cyber posture against Chinese hacking, and publishing a national defense strategy that downplays the China threat.

Foreign Policy spoke to Shedd and Badger about their motivation for highlighting China’s espionage, what to do about it, and the gaps that still exist. The conversation below has been edited for length and clarity.

Foreign Policy: Can you talk about why you felt the need to write this book?

David Shedd: I was indelibly marked by Chinese hackers’ stealing our security files in 2015—the Office of Personnel and Management heist of 22 million to 23 million security files. Were we to have that kind of information on an adversary, it would be a treasure trove of enormous value. So my kickoff for all of this was less about the technology, but the data: how they were collecting the data, amassing the data, and setting the stage for being able to exploit that data.

Andrew Badger: Really, the central question we’re trying to answer is: How did China rise so quickly? If you look back within David’s lifetime, they were an agrarian, third-world power. When I was growing up, they were basically cheap manufacturers. Now they’re commanding the heights of modern technological and economic innovation. China now dominates a great proportion of emerging technologies, from biopharma to aerospace to batteries for electric vehicles.

When we step back, you could see that espionage conducted by China has played a key role in shifting the global balance of power in real time, with China becoming a superpower with one of the most advanced militaries in the world and what I would argue is the most powerful intelligence agency in the world, the Ministry of State Security (MSS).

FP: A lot of the book is backward looking, but we’re now in a moment where China is leading and innovating in many sectors. How does espionage play a role now that it seems like China may not need it?

DS: Well, I would never........

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