News Analysis The Chinese economy has benefited from decades of purposeful economic espionage focused on acquiring Western technology, intellectual property, and general economic know-how. Communist China’s long-term economic strategy is aimed at replacing the U.S.-dominated post-World War II order, which was established by the United Nations and the Bretton Woods international monetary framework, with an “authoritarian capitalist system” controlled by Beijing. A key characteristic of authoritarian capitalism is defined here as “the presence of a capitalist economy on one hand along with the absence or erosion of democracy and civil liberties on the other hand.” The strategy involves penetrating, co-opting, and leveraging international institutions in order to gain access to resources, foreign direct investment, advanced technology, and Western methods so that Chinese industry can leap ahead of all foreign competition in the race for next-generation technologies and production capabilities—in short, to achieve world economic dominance over the long haul. To …