But the second thing Brown learned was that the Chinese were essentially doing what DIUx was doing—investing in “early-stage” companies. They were just doing it on a far larger scale than the Pentagon had in mind. What made the strategy so brilliant was that the Chinese were flying in under the radar. When they bought an entire company, it triggered an official review in Washington, from a little-known, little-understood group called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. It could recommend that the president block any sale on national-security grounds. And both Obama and
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