>> 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.

As somebody who has worked at several semiconductor design companies and has met many engineers who have done the same... I don't understand your take.

Of course we do sign NDAs, which prevent us from discussing trade secrets. But our "smarts" do hop from one company to the next job, how couldn't they? We have been hired because we are experts in a particular domain and have acquired knowledge and know-how in that domain.

So if our next employer happens to be a foreign company, what do you expect us to do? I am a Canadian national and never worked for a Canadian company.

Let me finish by saying that I was pursued for years by a Chinese multinational and I turned them down again and again specifically because of their close ties to the Chinese government. That went against my personal values and I could afford to say no, but I won't judge anybody who took the job, because at the end of the day we are all just trying to feed our families.