First published: Prospect Magazine, 23/05/14
As far as cyber-warfare itself goes, there’s no question that both the US and China spy on one another. But whereas spying for national security purposes passes as fair game, the US has clearly reached the point where it sees intellectual property (IP) theft to gain economic advantage for state owned enterprises (in which the Peoples’ Liberation Army has strong interests) as a bridge too far. This sort of IP traffic is predominantly one-way, that is, into China. Much of it occurs through foreign companies’ investing in China, and is in keeping with the local long-standing strategy of ‘indigenous innovation’ under which China wants to be able to compete at the highest level of technological excellence…..“more:”