Amidst the stupendously stupid move to publicly charge Chinese nationals (who are also a part of the military) with cyber spying the Chinese have, of course responded with evidence of cyber spying by the US:
Now, every one of the examples of N.S.A. spying on corporations around the world is becoming Exhibit A in China’s argument that by indicting five members of the People’s Liberation Army, the Obama administration is giving new meaning to capitalistic hypocrisy. In the Chinese view, the United States has designed its own system of rules about what constitutes “legal” spying and what is illegal.
That definition, the Chinese contend, is intended to benefit an American economy built around the sanctity of intellectual property belonging to private firms. And, in their mind, it is also designed to give the N.S.A. the broadest possible rights to intercept phone calls or email messages of state-owned companies from China to Saudi Arabia, or even private firms that are involved in activities the United States considers vital to its national security, with no regard to local laws. The N.S.A. says it observes American law around the globe, but admits that local laws are no obstacle to its operations.
I don't know who allowed Holder to make his announcement but it smacks of rank amateurism. We know countries do it to each other. This kind of stuff should always be done behind closed doors. Used for leverage in negotiations on other matters...behind closed doors. You may even bring in executives from affected companies and discuss the issue....behind closed doors. But you simply do not make these kinds of things public.
But this double standard that China speaks of is clear in Ukraine where popular uprisings are OK when the beneficiaries are certain governments and institutions and are BAD when they benefit other certain governments and institutions. And folks wonder why UKIP and other "far right" parties are on the rise in various countries. The blatant hypocrisy and double dealing is evident to the masses and they are slowly waking up to it. At some point the US population will stop playing the "lesser of two evils" game and put the lot of these folks out of office (right and left).
[Update]
“What we do not do, as we have said many times,” James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, said after some of the initial N.S.A. revelations last year, “is use our foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of — or give intelligence we collect to — U.S. companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line.”
Because of course we have other arms of government and other institutions to do the "international competitiveness" part.
[Update again]
he Stuxnet computer worm, designed by the United States and Israel, was designed to attack Siemens equipment — and it has never been clear whether the company knew that its machines were under American and Israeli attack. But in that case, American officials could argue that national security, not corporate competitiveness, was the goal.
But "national security" as defined by the
Wolfowitz doctrine includes dominance of the US, including economic entities attached to it.
The U.S. must show the leadership necessary to establish and protect a new order that holds the promise of convincing potential competitors that they need not aspire to a greater role or pursue a more aggressive posture to protect their legitimate interests. In non-defense areas, we must account sufficiently for the interests of the advanced industrial nations to discourage them from challenging our leadership or seeking to overturn the established political and economic order. We must maintain the mechanism for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role.
