Tuesday, November 20, 2007, 11/20/2007 08:05:00 AM

China: "Security Threat" and Denial

From the dog-bites-man files, first a story from Information Week concerning the economic espionage threat posed to the United States by China.

The occasion for the story is the new Report to Congress by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission which calls Chinese economic espionage the top threat to U.S. technology.

The report states in its summary that "Chinese espionage activities in the United States are so extensive that they comprise the single greatest risk to the security of American technologies."
Economic espionage, according to the report, saves China the time and cost of researching and developing advanced technologies.

For its part, China responded on Monday in a press release reported by the Associated Press. China called the Commission Report "brazen interference" in China's internal affairs.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao, in a statement posted on the ministry's Web site, said the report "ignores the fact of China's progress in the areas of politics, economics, and society, is rooted in prejudice, and brazenly interferes in China's internal affairs."

"We have already raised serious representations with the U.S. side expressing our resolute opposition," Liu said. His statement called the commission's report a "smear attack" aimed at misleading public opinion toward China.
back to top