As if the economy weren’t bad enough, now we’ve got something else to worry about: spying. It seems that the Chinese government just wants to know everything that’s happening out there. It’s sort of like Google with tanks.
Canadian research has uncovered Chinese spying. It’s not like this is the first time anyone’s discovered some of the things China is up to either. This is just the latest. A Chinese official’s claim of these being “old stories” and “nonsense” is pretty much a confirmation.
I guess they’re taking particular interest in Tibetan activities all over the world, for one, and no doubt are also focusing on commercial activities. A NATO computer was apparently hacked as well. Are there Tibetans at NATO?
The comments to this story are particularly interesting. The paranoia, well-deserved I might add, is more about China than Russia. (I suppose I should have prefaced this whole post with a disclaimer that it’s not racist, which is the usual thing trotted out when you criticize other countries. I have no problems with Chinese citizens, just their government.)
I’ve often been critical of how the world economy has developed and turned China into almost the only place you can buy anything (so much of which is toxic landfill). One of the comments in the story indicated they’d rather buy from India which, at least, is the world’s biggest democracy. Good point.
If we want to stop China from doing this kind of thing we need to speak with our wallets. Our governments need to stop supporting and effectively funding China with open door trade policies. China has an artificially successful economy because of its currency which is fixed to the US dollar, by some estimates, about 40 per cent below where it should be. It should be floating.
I would agree with other comments that suggest that we’re in a cold war but don’t know it. China’s not playing by any rules.
The last thing we should be doing is effectively funding the devious activities of foreign governments like China. The U.S. government understands the need to lessen its reliance on OPEC oil. Good plan. They also need to focus on lessening their reliance on China for the majority of their consumer goods.
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3 comments
Top 10 ways to protect your computer from viruses, worms & more | alainsaffel.com says:
Mar 31, 2009
[...] deny it, of course. No problem right? Well, I didn’t have any problems before then, but since my article was posted on China’s spy activities, my anti-virus software has detected probably about a dozen attempts to infect my computer. So, [...]
Jason says:
Nov 24, 2010
If you engage China in a trade war you effectively impoverish your own country since trade with China is reason we pay the price we pay for most goods today. Why would you hurt yourself just to hurt someone else? Free trade and production are the ONLY things that make a country rich.
Alain Saffel says:
Nov 24, 2010
China’s already engaging in a trade war with the west by pegging its currency to the US dollar and not allowing it to float freely as most other world currencies do. This actually warps the playing field in China’s favour.
I’m in favour of free trade provided it’s fair trade and China does not engage in fair trade. If it expects free access to North American and European markets, it should make the same available to North American and European countries.
China hasn’t and it likely won’t open up its markets. China is protectionist and has benefitted greatly by being able to dump its artificially cheap goods in the US.
The reality is that it’s this one-way benefit that is impoverishing the rest of the world. China knows what its doing, but now it’s tied to the sinking ship that is the American economy.
I just saw a story today that the Chinese are going to let their currency float against the ruble. That should be interesting.
Thanks for commenting.