GMO Seeds and the Chinese Spies (?)

New Republic has a piece on Chinese espionage against US intellectual property, specifically genetically modified seeds.

Think about that: The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI now contend, in effect, that the theft of genetically modified corn technology is as credible a threat to national security as the spread to nation-states of the technology necessary to deliver and detonate nuclear warheads.

It's a long piece, rehearsing the development of hybrid corn and then GMOs, and touching on farm policy from the New Deal through Earl Butz.  Inevitably such a summary must be incomplete and contain errors, but I'm not up to nitpicking today.