Comments on PRC espionage in Silicon Valley. Firms here hire H1Bs who carry PRC passports, and, they transfer, on L1s, managers hired in the PRC to the US for various stints. I have personally hired an H1B with a PRC passport, albeit, one who had that passport due to being an HK unfortunate who had been unable to get out prior to the handover. I had to use my own judgment to ensure this individual was not likely to be a PRC asset, since neither the corporate security screening nor the (at the time) INS approval process would have been capable of doing so. It is significant to note, that all H1Bs are treated essentially the same, whether they are from Canada or the PRC. The operational security inherent in hiring practices at high tech firms essentially sucks. And there is really no ongoing surveillance of H1Bs from the PRC, to see whether or not they are spying. Final note, at my current firm, there are PRC national H1Bs with access to the main corporate books. Ponder that ...
Very interesting personal experience. Wish I could have used that in the article.