We've had a case in Australia of an ex-US forces pilot trainer arrested under extradition laws because he is said to have taught Chinese pilots how to land and take off from aircraft carriers.

Think about it for a minute: His one portable skill, the IPR behind doing a thing, a mechanical act, is deemed to be an ITAR risk. Knowing how to do it, is a weaponised concept in strategic planning.

And ask yourself: Can this apply to VLSI design smarts, or OpSEC, or DEVOPS?

I'm pretty sure at this stage, it applies to Cryptography so basically, be good at maths, you have no right (specifically right: you may be, you may not) to go and work in China.

It's been true for past knowledge of workplace. NSA (see above) and probably US forces (see the start) and I would suspect, other things too. If you worked at the FTC or department of state, don't try for a working holiday abroad without permission.

This is nothing new. The British banned skilled textile workers from immigration to US.

Edit: The British also banned export of advanced textile machines during the industrial revolution to US. It's very similar to the US/Europe banning ASML machines from being sold to China.

FTC or State Department personnel are highly unlikely to have globally in-demand skills such as VLSI.

> Can this apply to [...] DEVOPS?

Maybe not DevOps. DevOps skills are covered in depth via thousands of YouTube video's. ;)

> And ask yourself: Can this apply to VLSI design smarts, or OpSEC, or DEVOPS?

Sure. People are asked to sign NDAs pertaining to those all the time and I don't see why that's any different from classified military routines. Carrier based landings have zero civilian applications - it is a skill practiced by military pilots and no one else. You cannot be a carrier-certified pilot without understanding that your skillset is a domestic security asset.

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