China is using a whole-of-society approach to steal its way to becoming a military power, and the U.S. government needs to better defend against such an espionage campaign, according to a retired CIA officer. “U.S. security officials estimate that the Chinese steal between $300 billion and $600 billion a year in U.S. intellectual property, research and development, information, and technology,” David Sauer told The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet NTD on Oct 29. The United States hasn’t been the only target of the campaign, Sauer said. China’s efforts have also targeted the European Union, South Korea, and Japan since the push began around 2000 to 2001, he said. “They’re [China] stealing that information and then integrating [it] into their economy and their state-owned enterprises [and] into their military. Some of their military systems look like a carbon copy of U.S. military systems,” he said. “So it really saves them [China] …