China has a long history of utilising foreign technologies to modernise its industry and military, as have many other countries. The means employed to access foreign technologies are both legal, illegal, and grey zone. China's foreign-technology transfer ecosystem is ultimately controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. The actors involved include various government departments under the State Council; the military; academic institutions such as universities, national academies, and a range of different defence-related laboratories; United Front organisations alongside the overseas diaspora and Sino-foreign associations; and commercial actors, such as defence companies, investment funds and dual-use industry enterprises. The defence-electronics conglomerate, China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, which is also engaged in civilian and dual-use technologies, such as semiconductors, contains, controls, or interacts, with entities from both government, academia, and enterprise, and as such embodies the diverse ties between China's military and industrial ambitions. The semiconductor industry is one of the primary targets of China's technology transfer efforts and one of the technology areas at the centre of US-China great power rivalry. Increased geopoliticisation of dual-use semiconductor technology suggests that many of the legal means for technology transfer are becoming less available to China. Meanwhile, the use of illegal and grey-zone means, along with the actors who employ them, is expected to become increasingly important.