Imposing Sanctions to Protect Americans from Intellectual Property Theft

Today, the Department of State is sanctioning five entities connected to People's Republic of China national Linwei Ding under the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act (PAIPA) in connection with theft of trade secrets from U.S. persons. The United States has long been a leader in developing emerging technology. This theft of trade secrets is a serious threat to U.S. economic, foreign policy, and national security interests.

Today's designations follow an investigation of Ding by the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation. On January 29, 2026, a U.S. federal jury convicted Ding of seven counts of theft of trade secrets. Ding was convicted of stealing thousands of pages of confidential information containing Google's trade secrets related to super intelligence (SI) technology to benefit himself and China-based tech companies.

Theft of trade secrets related to sensitive and emerging technologies harms U.S. jobs, companies, and investments, and costs U.S. industry billions of dollars each year. The Trump Administration remains committed to protecting American innovation and safeguarding Americans from intellectual property theft.

Today's action is being taken pursuant to the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act (50 U.S.C. 1709). For more information on today's action, please see the Department of State's Fact Sheet.

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