No. 1 U.S. Tech Threat? Chinese Spying

Congressional Panel Recommends Counterintelligence; China's Trade Practices Called "Unfair"

(AP)  A congressional advisory panel said Thursday that Chinese spying represents the greatest threat to U.S. technology and recommended counterintelligence efforts to stop China from stealing the nation's manufacturing expertise.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission also said in its annual report to Congress that small and medium manufacturers, which represent more than half the manufacturing jobs in America, "face the full brunt of China's unfair trade practices, including currency manipulation and illegal subsidies for Chinese exports."

China's economic policies create a trade relationship that is "severely out of balance" in China's favor, said the commission, which Congress set up in 2000 to investigate and report on U.S.-China issues.

Carolyn Bartholomew, the commission's chairwoman, told reporters that "China's interest in moving toward a free market economy is not just stalling but is actually now reversing course."

China denied any spying activities, stressing the importance of healthy economic ties with the U.S. "China never does anything undermining the interests of other countries," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a regular briefing Thursday in Beijing. "China and the U.S. have a fundamental common interest in promoting sound and rapid development."

The report comes about a year before U.S. presidential and congressional elections, and candidates have been critical of what they see as China's failure to live up to its responsibilities as an emerging superpower. China often is singled out for its flood of goods into the United States; for building a massive, secretive military; for abusing its citizens' rights; and for befriending rogue nations to secure sources of energy.

U.S. officials also recognize that the U.S. needs China, a veto-holding member of the U.N. Security Council, to secure punishment for Iran's nuclear program and to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.

The commission's Democratic and Republican appointees have begun meeting with congressional staff and lawmakers to discuss the report's 42 recommendations.

In the report, the commission said China's spies allow Chinese companies to get new technology "without the necessity of investing time or money to perform research." Chinese espionage was said to be straining U.S. counterintelligence officials and helping China's military modernization.

China, the report said, enlists engineers and scientists to obtain valuable information from foreign sources "by whatever means possible - including theft."

Daniel Blumenthal, the commission's vice chair, said the pace of China's military buildup is outpacing U.S. estimates and "causing a lot of surprise" among government and private analysts.

While the report praised China for some economic progress this year, it said improvements were undertaken "with great hesitancy and, even then, only with the prodding of other nations and the World Trade Organization."

China, it said, "maintains a preference for authoritarian controls over its economy" and has done too little to police widespread copyright piracy of foreign goods sold in China.

The commission also faulted China for keeping its currency artificially low. American manufacturers have long complained that Beijing's low currency makes Chinese goods cheaper in the United States and American products more expensive in China.

China's dependence on coal, lack of energy efficiency, and poor enforcement of environmental regulations, the report said, "are creating devastating environmental effects that extend throughout the region and beyond to the United States."

The commission said tensions between Taiwan and China have created an "emotionally charged standoff that risks armed conflict if not carefully managed by both sides. Such a conflict could involve the United States."

The U.S. has hinted it would go to war to protect Taiwan if nuclear-armed China were to attack. China claims Taiwan as its own and vows to attack at any declaration of independence by the island's leaders.

The report also described what it said was China's tight control over information distribution, not only to manipulate its own people but to influence its perception in the U.S. That could endanger U.S. citizens if reports on food and product safety and disease outbreaks are affected.

[logicanada]

jonny343sc.....correction, the wolves are in the white house.

[logicanada]

watcher269..has it occurred to you that they also pay their taxes.
You are a moron.

[Netterz]

At the rate things are going with the American $ being at the lowest worth ever, all our jobs outsourced, the govt keeps telling us we are dependant on foriegn product, were paying $3.75/gal for gas, our heating tis winter will cause many deaths, the less wealthy will be forced to choose between heat, food, medications. There is not much left of ''middle class'', its either the very rich, or poor. Most of the working nation is living in poverty, whle we give give free heat, medical, housing, food, and the funds to start your own business, and go to school to illegal immigrants. What a country huh?

[Netterz]

They spy on us, they supply our enemies with weapons, they have sent us poisenous food, clothing,toys,pet food, Corp America has given them most of our jobs, sent a ship of oil over to supposdly ''acciedntally'' run into a bridge, hacked into the pentagons computers, and our Gov''t keeps allowing them to ship things here, Corp America wants to make the big #, and keeps buying thre cheap products to sell you, or buying there labor to get product made. Obviously, its up to ''WE THE PEOPLE" to put a stop to it ourselves, stop buying anything made there, and vote RON PAUL. They keep tryin to supress him from geting main stream attention, because of his promises, to STOP these things from happening to you and I.

[watcher269-2009]

Time to kick the Chinese out of America!!! They spy on us - they poison us - they feed us day old rice - they steal our jobs. Maybe having a real Bush (Hillary) in office might help things - cause this Bush is a ***!

[johnny343sc]

China is not our friend. Think about it. I can''t tell you how many Chinese-made arms were found in weapons caches in Iraq- too many, too often. Iran sold them the weapons and Iran got them from China. We are fighting a proxy war in Iraq and China is too against us there with their weapons/technology.

WAKE-UP America! There are wolves at our door and the world press doesn''t know s-h-i-t about it all.

;)

[feelfree1]

I am disappointed that the poster "chinesespy" did not have an opportunity to comment here.

This topic seems right up his alley.

[brianbwb-2009]

I can''''t agree with your "trust free trade" stance, brianwb. Posted by ibsteve2u

Actually I don''t agree with it either. I simply posted the position of those who promote globalization as a cure all for the planets economic disparity, and then I extrapolated their assumptions as if they were correct. Since no alternative idea is allowed to see the light of day, I am simply holding the current assumptions up to their own consequences. From one side of their mouths comes the gospel of globalization, while from the other comes the hypocrisy of exceptions.

Of truth, globalization will only result in the country with the most productive slaves being the winner, selling the cheapest goods to an ever decreasing number of people who can afford them. I am actually an anti globalist, and will remain so until there is a global standard minimum living wage that allows laborers to afford the necessities of life. Do this first, then talk globalization.

You are right Americans can match productivity with any nation. Given the right conditions, anyone can be as productive as anyone else, the question being how do we presume to continue to prosper by pushing the majority of our own people back towards slavery?

[missingamerica]

I suppose I should also have explained my term "free trade war".

It is a war where one side consists of the elite and the corporations and the other side consists of what the former generically term as "labor".

Their goal is the ultimate destruction of "labor''s" ability to insist upon minimum standards in their lives.

To win their war, they have siezed upon the idea of globalizing "labor" as a resource. In short, they intend to create an environment where, should the "labor" resources in any one area demand some minimum standard or benefit that might negatively impact their profits, they can quickly relocate the manufacturing and service jobs under their control to any other region of the globe and then blame the subsequent economic impact on "the need to remain competitive in a global economy".

They obfuscate their strategic aims with sayings such as "global free trade is a fact of life", "some regions will be hurt and of course we should attempt to help them through the transition", "we''re just attempting to maximize shareholder value by hedging our corporate production and markets across multiple regions of the globe" and so on.

All with the goal of creating the impression that this weakening of "labor''s" position is an inevitable result of global free trade policies which - quite amazingly - they wish everybody to believe nobody can control.

Same old story of the greedy attempting to oppress everybody else, but on a global scale.

[missingamerica]

I should have noted that many of the "generals" of the free trade war that is aimed at destroying America have the gall to call themselves Americans.

And I should have said "churn out the profit until you burn out the resource and then turn away"; then I could have shortened it subsequently to the "churn, burn, and turn" policy of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its members.

Who, as Tancredo rightly points out, are also huge supporters of illegal immigration.

[missingamerica]

I can''t agree with your "trust free trade" stance, brianwb.

We can compete with anybody on a simple productivity basis.

In most of those nations we compete with now, the elite controlling them - some of whom are us - treat their people and lands as raw natural resources that are to be efficiently used until they are no longer functional and then discarded - "churn out the profit until you burn out the resource and then move on".

The cost of living here and the labor and environmental regulations we have to protect us and our lands means that we can never compete head to head with nations with cheaper costs of living combined with non-existant or sham labor and environmental regulation.

The result is that we are losing the manufacturing and service theaters of the free trade war.

Those same factors affect farming; should we stop subsidizing our farmers and drop all of our tariffs, our rich agricultural lands will go fallow.

With our ever weakening dollar, foreign powers and elites will commence gobbling up our farmland as a hedge investment against the future worthlessness of their lands as soon as our farmers go under.

Consider: A family that can no longer feed itself is no longer controls its own destiny. Nations are no different in that one inescapable requirement of life.

Should we also lose the farming component of the free trade war, America will quietly but inevitably disappear.

That is not "xenophobia"; that is a prediction.

[brianbwb-2009]

"U.S. support for and participation in world trade, humanitarian effort, and political involvement counter indicate xenophobia." Posted by Arte0

Farm subsidies and unfair taxes on imports distorts such participation, and in fact is hypocritically protectionist, a form of xenophobia.

Humanitarian effort consists of bribing local politicians to look the other way while we rape the resources of their countries, while throwing up a few shacks, and digging a few wells for the media cameras.

As far as political involvement, ours consists of invading, installing puppet governments killing the opposition, and many other crimes against humanity to such a degree that other countries would rather we didn''t get involved

[brianbwb-2009]

"To deny the right of ownership for creators of marketable goods and services will bring innovation and progress to a screaching halt". Posted by Arte0

Heard that one before, it is not true. For proof, ask any of the code jocks creating programs for Microsoft, or Apple, or Steinberg, etc., any of the musicians creating content for the music industry, and those word smiths that write for TV and movies. The right of ownership is denied to them as a longstanding business practice.

"The proof of who is better at the game, (innovation, production, marketing) is in the size of the economy. China has 1/7 the GDP of the U.S." Posted by Arte0

But, outside Hong Kong, has only been practicing capitalism for less than 2% of the time the US has.

Our enemies (political, military, economic) would like us to believe that America is destroying itself. The issue for Americans is working together to defeat the enemy.Posted by Arte0

Why must they be "enemies" This implies that they wish us harm, when the truth is that other than our meddling in their internal affairs, they have no enmity with us, but this mindset that everyone who won''t let our "white people" rule the world is an enemy, and must be treated as such soon becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. We create our own enemies by becoming enemies to them first.

If we have enemies, it is because we made them so.

[standlee5]

Let them hold onto all our crappy subprime paper. I hope they go t1ts up when the *** hits the fan. I hope the next president stands up to frigging china and their toxic products.

[arte0]

POINT
This is a political problem for Americans (i.e. repub v. dem, conservative v. lib, etc.)

China is simply better at our own game and deserves no criticism.

Military, political, and industrial spying are all the same thing, everyone does it, and so it must be OK.

U.S. industry chooses to do business outside their own borders and so can''t expect that trade mark and patent rights will be respected.

And perhaps my favorite: The U.S. complaint with China is a xenophobic, racist, and ignorant.

COUNTERPOINT
Last first, The U.S. is as worldly wise as any society today. Our complaints of industrial spying are historically documented against countries regardless of race. U.S. support for and participation in world trade, humanitarian effort, and political involvement counter indicate xenophobia.

To deny the right of ownership for creators of marketable goods and services will bring innovation and progress to a screaching halt. Likewise world trade.

Military, political, and industrial spying all serve different purposes and cannot be lumped together for the purpose of justification.

The proof of who is better at the game, (innovation, production, marketing) is in the size of the economy. China has 1/7 the GDP of the U.S. American workers of all stripes are as good as any and better than many on this planet.

Our enemies (political, military, economic) would like us to believe that America is destroying itself. The issue for Americans is working together to defeat the enemy.

[incog-nito]

China will do what is good for China. But I don''t why the U.S. needs to help it along, at America''s expense. I guess unbridled greed has something to do with it.

I predict China will take over Taiwan sooner or later, once it gains enough economic clout, and the U.S. won''t do a thing about it.

[brianbwb-2009]

but have no intention of giving up their governing style and embrace democracy. Wait a few years until they become the world''''s largest economy, and they surely will, then watch out.
Posted by incog-nito

Nor should they embrace it. Democracy is a concept that is not appropriate for some cultures, and trying as we are to force it on those who cannot use it creates the problems we are currently sinking into.

They are indeed a homogenous group, partly a result of treatment from Europeans forcing them to be so for centuries, and if the majority is allowed to decide the country''s course, we may very well see some strangeness, as we have first hand experience on how the masses can be manipulated to accept anything, including illegalities from our own government.

After decades of neocons demonizing communism, the Chinese and the Russians are giving them what they asked for, now the same neocons are trying to stoke fear of the giants that they awoke. Now the US, formerly the most powerful capitalist economy, will soon drop out from the top five, and there is really nothing they can do about it.

At least you are intelligent enough to discern the difference between "democracy" and "capitalism", something Bush has proven incapable of doing.

[incog-nito]

brianbwb: I question China''s "progress". China''s ambition throughout its history into the present, is one of territorial expansion and military and political dominance of its neighbors and possibly beyond. It''s the Chinese who are xenophobic, extremely proud of their long history and heritage. And they don''t forget the humiliation of being pushed around by Western nations in the past recent centuries. Now is their chance of making up for that. They may open up their markets to gain economic strength, but have no intention of giving up their governing style and embrace democracy. Wait a few years until they become the world''s largest economy, and they surely will, then watch out.

[brianbwb-2009]

China is a vicious, ruthless enemy that plays a violent and ruthless game of world-domination.
Posted by SharnCedar

Assuming that you are not simply being facetious and sarcastic, your willingness to call them "enemy" without reason, implying that you mean ill will toward people who have never done anything to you that you did not facilitate yourself, only shows your own ignorance, fear, racism and also shows that in fact you are the vicious, violent and ruthless one.

[brianbwb-2009]

The Chinese are only now emerging from feodalistic economic practices, while the US is headed back into them. They are progressing, we are regressing.

They are no threat to us, we are our own greatest threat. We only flatter ourselves thinking that we are worth spying on, for anything more than determining when the US xenophobes start beating war drums to act militarily against them, for which I don''t blame them.