In light of revelations of widespread spying by the NSA (as revealed by Edward Snowden and others), it just seems a tad hypocritical of the US to accuse China of spying on US companies.
The US tries to assert that the US spying on foreign companies in the name of national security is ok, but China spying on US companies in order to benefit Chinese companies is not. But unfortunately, the US seems to have lost any moral authority it ever had with regard to spying.
2 Comments
I think the biggest problem with China stealing US company secrets is jobs. One can argue that one of the reasons workers in the US are losing jobs and getting lower pay is because companies in China are able to do what US workers are doing for less money. And is stealing trade secrets the way they are doing it?
http://economyincrisis.org/content/trade-deficit-china-could-cost-half-million-jobs
Moreover the chinese have been hacking into media companies to ensure their image is maintained and have also hacked into other countries as well as the links below show. So it’s not just them trying to get a competitive edge. I would guess its the chinese government doing whatever they can to maintain control of a restless populace. Quite frankly no one has the moral authority I guess since everyone seems to be spying on one another. Certainly looks like the NSA does it at a higher level and went too far but the US government has the job of protecting US lives and US jobs are at stake here.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323926104578276202952260718
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/technology/chinese-hackers-infiltrate-new-york-times-computers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/sep/04/news.internet
Jonah, I don’t disagree with you, but you could take everything you just said and rewrite it to apply to the US stealing Chinese company secrets and jobs. The US government has flatly declared that they will spy in the name of US economic interests. So how can we tell the Chinese that it is not OK when they do the exact same thing?