A J-20 stealth fighter of China flies at the 11th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai, south China's Guangdong Province, Nov. 1, 2016. Xinhua | Li Gang | Getty Images

China is taking a page from the Pentagon's playbook under the Obama administration: it's partnering with tech companies to develop more cutting-edge weapons. But China's innovation-focused strategy could elevate the espionage risk to the U.S. Ironically, this new threat emerges as the Trump administration is expected to slow its outreach to the tech firms. Over the weekend, Chinese President Xi Jinping made an address to the country's national legislature where he urged the People's Liberation Army "to speed up" the application of advanced technologies, according to the Chinese military's official web portal. Jinping sees "integrated military and civilian development" as one of the drivers of science-tech innovation and key to upgrading China's military capabilities.

"If you were to look at reports like Chinese military power over time, it's obvious that China is closing the gap more quickly than, for example, we probably would have estimated five or three years ago," said Anthony Cordesman, a national security expert and Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C. The communist nation's military has made major technology strides in the past decade in missile, laser weapon, advanced sensor and stealth aircraft development with the help of Chinese firms in the civilian sector. Its rapidly developing missile technology is seen by some as a potential threat to the West. Other major strides have been made in stealth aircraft design and follow what's believed to be state-sponsored cyber and industrial espionage. "China's overall effort toward civil-military integration will provide great benefits to China's already very aggressive espionage programs," said Richard Fisher, a senior fellow on Asian military affairs at the International Assessment and Strategy Center in Alexandria, Virginia. According to Fisher, the close ties between military development and the civilian side of China's economy "is one of the highest policies" of the central government in Beijing. As an example, China's president was named earlier this year to chair a new central commission to promote this effort.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) and Premier Li Keqiang attend the third plenary session of the fifth session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 12, 2017. Nicolas Asfouri | AFP | Getty Images

There are "vast new incentives as well as requirements for the actors in the civilian economy to come up with ways to examine anything innovative that they come up with that can be applied to the military," Fisher said. A year ago, a Chinese national identified as "a businessman in the aviation and aerospace fields" pleaded guilty in the U.S. to participating in a conspiracy to hack into computer networks of major American defense contractors to steal military and export-controlled data. Court documents show the conspiracy group's targets included the Boeing C-17 military cargo aircraft as well as Lockheed Martin's F-22 and F-35 fighters. "It's fairly obvious from patterns of industrial espionage that it isn't always the government which has been, for example, seeking data on defense activities in the United States and Europe," said Cordesman. He added that in some cases it appears "to be people with some kind of private sector or industrial ties." Experts say the espionage organs in China set the priorities and come up with lists of targets. If a civilian company offers possible linkages to military companies, then the espionage leadership is likely to pursue those leads.