Business | Schumpeter

America can’t control the global flow of ideas

History has not been kind to countries' attempts at hoarding intellectual property

ONE of the quirks of LinkedIn, a career-oriented networking site with over 562m users, is that strangers wish you a happy birthday even when your mum has forgotten. If this happens to you, don’t respond: it could be a Chinese spy. According to Reuters, American counter-intelligence chiefs think that China is running a “super-aggressive” campaign on LinkedIn to recruit experts in health care, green energy and technology. Other agencies are nervous, too. The FBI complains of an “unparalleled” level of economic espionage. The National Security Agency says America is being “pummelled”.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “An empire of the mind”

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