| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
When President Obama expressed "serious concern" about the cyber espionage being conducted against America by its "enemies" in his February 12th State of the Union message, he did not name names. But the statement came just two days after leaks from a US national intelligence estimate identified China as the most serious culprit. In recent months, the administration has been more direct. During his summit with China's new President Xi Jinping in California in early June, Obama elevated commercial cyber espionage to one of the two leading issues (a nuclear-armed North Korea being the other) that divide the two countries. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel had struck a similar chord a few days earlier at his opening address at the Shangri-La Dialogue meeting of defense ministers in Singapore, when he referred bluntly to the Chinese state and military entities that are stealing commercial secrets from American firms in cyberspace. And, in a speech to the Asia Society in New York in March, outgoing national security adviser Thomas Donilon said that cyber espionage by state-based or state-funded entities is now at the "forefront" of American-Chinese relations, adding that "US businesses are increasingly speaking out about their serious concerns about sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential business information and proprietary technologies through cyber intrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented scale."
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