U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox has been appointed to serve on the Justice Department’s China Initiative combatting economic espionage by Beijing.
The announcement was made on November 1 by former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who resigned at President Donald Trump’s request on Wednesday.
Nealy Cox will serve on the China Initiative with four other U.S. Attorneys from New York, California, Alabama and Massachusetts. The group is led by John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security, and also includes senior FBI officials and Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski of the criminal division.
“We cannot and will not allow foreign actors to take advantage of American ingenuity to line their own pockets,” Nealy Cox said in the announcement. “I am proud to join this important effort and look forward to advancing the China initiative with my DOJ colleagues across the country.”
According to the DOJ press release, the initiative’s goals include:
• Identify priority trade secret theft cases, ensure that investigations are adequately resourced, and work to bring them to fruition in a timely manner
• Develop an enforcement strategy concerning non-traditional collectors (e.g., researchers in labs, universities, and the defense industrial base) that are being coopted into transferring technology contrary to U.S. interests
• Educate colleges and universities about potential threats to academic freedom and open discourse from influence efforts on campus
• Apply the Foreign Agents Registration Act to unregistered agents seeking to advance China’s political agenda, bringing enforcement actions when appropriate
• Equip the nation’s U.S. Attorneys with intelligence and materials they can use to raise awareness of these threats within their Districts and support their outreach efforts
• Implement the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRMA) for DOJ (including by working with Treasury to develop regulations under the statute and prepare for increased workflow)
• Identify opportunities to better address supply chain threats, especially ones impacting the telecommunications sector, prior to the transition to 5G networks
• Identify Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) cases involving Chinese companies that compete with American businesses
• Increase efforts to improve Chinese responses to requests under the Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement (MLAA) with the United States
• Evaluate whether additional legislative and administrative authorities are required to protect our national assets from foreign economic aggression