(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Justice Department plans to step up enforcement actions against China in cases of suspected economic espionage, marking a new step in the Trump administration's trade war against the country.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions plans to announce Thursday a new initiative to respond to Chinese efforts against U.S. companies to get access to technology and trade secrets, whether through hacking or theft by insiders, according to a U.S. official.
Sessions is ordering the FBI and the department's National Security Division, led by John Demers, to step up enforcement, the official said. The Justice Department will select five U.S. attorneys to be part of the initiative.
The announcement will be coupled with the unsealing of a criminal case in California involving the theft of trade secrets from a U.S. company, the official said. This week, prosecutors unveiled charges against two alleged Chinese spies for orchestrating a conspiracy to steal prized jet engine technology from private companies.
To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Strohm in Washington at cstrohm1@bloomberg.net;David McLaughlin in Washington at dmclaughlin9@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, ;Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert
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