American companies are too slowly coming to the realization that the government of the People’s Republic of China directs an intentional, comprehensive campaign to acquire American and other Western technology by any means necessary. These mechanisms include patent infringement, coerced joint ventures and licensing arrangements, predatory finance, hacking, supply chain corruption, and old fashioned human espionage. However, American companies continue to labor under the misconception that the U.S. government or the government of the PRC can adopt policies to eliminate or reduce this wide scale theft. They cannot. The reason is that intellectual property (IP) theft is not merely a policy, but a feature of the Chinese economy and Party-State. The Communist Party of China (CPC) stands above the law. PRC companies with connections (guanxi) and an umbrella (baohusan) in the CPC can and do safely ignore the law and steal whatever IP they can, both domestically and internationally. This system discourages innovation in favor of theft. This means that absent a fundamental reform of the PRC Party-State and introduction of real rule of law, theft will continue regardless of any policy changes. It also means that U.S. companies must protect themselves. This article explains the nature of the threat, the mechanisms of theft, and the steps American companies can take to safeguard their technology, IP, and other confidential business information.