Tech giants are giving China a vital edge in espionage Chinese company Baidu launches on the NASDAQ in New York in 2005. Some 15 years later, questions are being asked about its links with the Chinese Communist Party. Â AP Save Share In 2017, as US President Donald Trump began his trade war with China, another battle raged behind the scenes. The simmering, decade-long conflict over data between Chinese and US intelligence agencies was heating up, driven both by the ambitions of an increasingly confident Beijing and by the conviction of key players in the new administration in Washington that China was presenting an economic, political, and national security challenge on a scale the United States had not faced for decades â if ever.