A Detective in China: A Memoir of Sleuthing Out Technology Cheating

A former US Commerce rep recalls cat-and-mouse games with Chinese firms

I FIRST REALIZED WE WERE GOING TO CHINA while sitting at a bus stop outside the Commerce Department. It was late on a sunny spring afternoon in 1990. The Washington Monument rose high above as snarled rush-hour traffic inched along Constitution Avenue. I was reading Life and Death in Shanghai, by Nien Cheng. Not really a beginner in Chinese but still st…