August 9, 2020. Drawing on an article published in the monthly magazine THEMIS, this essay examines China’s Thousand Talents Plan, the recruitment of leading researchers, research funding offered to Japanese academics, university funding, advanced semiconductor and manufacturing technologies, the movement of engineers, and cyberattacks, asking how Japan should protect its technological and industrial foundations in an age of economic security.

2020-08-09
Whenever I saw an advertisement for the monthly magazine THEMIS at the bottom of a newspaper page, I thought that I would like to subscribe.
However, because it was available only by regular subscription, I had regarded the procedure as troublesome and had never done so.
But when I saw the lineup for this month’s issue, I decided that it was something I should read, and I initially chose a six-month subscription and completed the procedure online.
The current issue arrived immediately.
This magazine, too, is essential reading for Japanese citizens who genuinely wish to know the truth behind events.
The moment one begins reading it, one should realize something.
It is no exaggeration to say that most of Japan’s mass media—and perhaps the same is true throughout the world—do not report the real substance of events.
Yet what is written here is nothing extraordinary.
It is simply what should be obvious.
Doing what should obviously be done is the mark of the first-rate.
Being unable to do what should obviously be done is the mark of the second- or third-rate.
Because the first-rate always seek perfection, the failure of much of the media to report the truth demonstrates that much of the media consists of second- and third-rate people.
THEMIS perfectly substantiates the correctness of my argument in which I was the first in Japan to state specifically that the Asahi Shimbun is by no means Japan’s finest player.
The following is from an article published under a headline meaning, “The Age of Economic Security Has Arrived—The Economic Division of the National Security Secretariat Confronts China’s Advance: Can Japan Counter China’s Economic-Security Strategy Amid U.S.-China Economic Friction?”
The preceding section is omitted.
【China Offers a Japanese Professor More Than ¥100 Million】
“China, which was then predicted to overtake the United States in GDP by around 2030, was watching the emerging Japan-U.S. partnership with increasing concern.”
“China continues to apply pressure on Japan through the use of ‘economic statecraft.’”
“One of its tools is the ‘Thousand Talents Plan.’”
“It was a policy launched in 2008 by the Chinese government to attract world-class intellectual talent to China.”
“In January of this year, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Harvard University Professor Charles Lieber after alleging that he had concealed his participation in the Thousand Talents Plan from the U.S. government and made false statements concerning it.”
“In October 2016, Toshitaka Kajino, a specially appointed professor at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, became the first director of the newly established International Research Center for Big-Bang Cosmology and Element Genesis at Beihang University in Beijing.”
“Kajino had been selected for the Thousand Talents Plan in the spring of 2016.”
“Japan, however, had no regulations governing participation in the Thousand Talents Plan.”
“One of the overseas recruiters for the program was reportedly Wang Bo, who had spent more than ten years in Japan and had worked at a publicly funded research institution.”
“Those selected could receive a state incentive payment of one million yuan, approximately ¥14 million at the time.”
“The research facilities provided were also substantial.”
“One Japanese professor who applied to the Thousand Talents Plan and moved to China was reportedly provided with more than ¥100 million in research funding over five years.”
“He told NHK, ‘This is an environment that would be almost impossible to obtain in Japan, and I am extremely grateful.’”
“A considerable number of Japanese researchers were believed to be participating in the Thousand Talents Plan, yet the Japanese government was unable to grasp the actual situation.”
“Likewise, many universities were said to have received donations from the Chinese telecommunications equipment giant Huawei.”
“Universities in the United States are required to report to the government when they receive foreign funds exceeding $250,000.”
“‘Japan has no comparable system. We do not know precisely how much funding Japanese universities have accepted from Huawei. There are still universities conducting joint research with the company or receiving donations from it,’ a serving government official said.”
【Recruiting a Former Semiconductor Company President】
“At the beginning of the previous year, a Chinese-language document described as a ‘List of Technologies Not Yet Mastered by China’ was brought to the Japanese government.”
“It was said to have been prepared in 2017 by a person affiliated with a major Chinese investment fund.”
“It listed 63 industrial technologies that China did not possess, along with foreign corporations and research institutions—including Japanese ones—that possessed them.”
“The ‘unmastered core technologies’ on the list reportedly included semiconductor materials, semiconductor processing technology, ultra-high-precision machine tools, industrial robots, precision measuring instruments, and carbon fiber.”
“The names of major manufacturers possessing these technologies were also listed.”
“They included Shin-Etsu Chemical, Hitachi, Toray, Teijin, NSK, Yamazaki Mazak, Amada, Okuma, Yaskawa Electric, Satake, JEOL, RIKEN, the University of Tokyo, Toho Tenax, Mitsubishi Rayon, and others.”
“The fastest way to acquire advanced technology is through corporate acquisitions, business alliances, and the recruitment of engineers.”
“The companies and engineers identified on such a list could be targeted at any time.”
“For example, on April 13, Chinese semiconductor manufacturer Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. (YMTC) announced the development of high-performance flash memory at a world-leading level.”
YMTC itself announced its 128-layer 1.33Tb QLC 3D NAND flash memory on April 13, 2020.
“YMTC was established in 2016 as a company associated with Tsinghua Unigroup, an IT group rooted in Tsinghua University, the alma mater of Chinese President Xi Jinping.”
“A vice president of Tsinghua Unigroup was Yukio Sakamoto, former president of Elpida Memory, Japan’s last DRAM semiconductor manufacturer, which was acquired by the U.S. company Micron Technology in 2013.”
Contemporary reports and an interview with Sakamoto confirm that he became a senior vice president of Tsinghua Unigroup in 2019.
“Tsinghua Unigroup received Chinese government support intended to strengthen the competitiveness of China’s semiconductor industry.”
“Sakamoto had been recruited and moved to the Chinese group.”
“In June, Honda announced that its internal network had been subjected to a cyberattack.”
“Access to computer servers, internal systems and email, and overseas production systems was affected.”
“Factories and other operations around the world were also affected.”
“The article further stated that the cyberattack on Honda was believed to have originated in China and that China’s cyber forces numbered 100,000, compared with 6,000 in the United States.”
End of excerpt.
The issue raised here is not simply one of Japanese researchers “moving to China.”
A state offers enormous research budgets and advanced facilities to attract outstanding researchers and engineers from around the world.
Money flows into universities and research institutions.
Technologies that the country has not yet mastered are identified.
Corporate acquisitions, business alliances, and recruitment are used to obtain them.
And the technologies involved—semiconductors, precision machinery, industrial robots, carbon fiber and other advanced materials—directly determine national industrial competitiveness.
If this picture is accurate, Japan can no longer regard the matter simply as normal academic exchange or ordinary free-market activity.
Academic freedom must, of course, be protected.
At the same time, understanding the flow of technology, research funding, and human talent directly connected to national security and the industrial base is also a legitimate responsibility of the state.
By 2020, the United States was already prosecuting cases involving false statements concerning participation in China’s Thousand Talents Plan.
What, then, was Japan doing?
Which researchers were receiving funding from which countries, and in what amounts?
Which universities were accepting how much money from foreign corporations?
In what ways were Japanese companies and engineers possessing world-class advanced technology being approached from abroad?
If a government does not even understand that overall picture, genuine economic security cannot exist.
Security in the twenty-first century is not simply a matter of counting tanks and fighter aircraft.
Semiconductors.
Artificial intelligence.
Telecommunications.
Precision machinery.
Advanced materials.
Space.
Researchers.
Universities.
And information.
We have entered an age in which a nation must understand who possesses these assets, who finances them, and who is attempting to acquire them.