On Thursday last week, the FBI released a film entitled The Company Man: Protecting America's
Secrets, which targets economic espionage. The 35-minute film features
two
Chinese economic spies who try to bribe a US employee with money,
attempting to acquire insulation technology from the latter's company.
The two were later prosecuted and caught in the net of justice.
According to media reports, the
video has already been shown nearly 1,300 times at US enterprises.
An FBI
official
publicly voiced that "China is the most dominant threat we face from
economic espionage … The Chinese government plays a significant role."
The official also declared that economic espionage has caused losses of hundreds billions of dollars annually to the US economy.
How much is "hundreds of billions of dollars?" Say $300 billion, about 2 percent of US annual GDP.
Since the FBI believes that there has been a 53 percent surge in
economic espionage in the US, and 95 percent of US companies suspect
that China is the main culprit, does it infer that China has stolen 2
percent of US GDP?
Some people may ponder that given the Cold War is over, Osama bin
Laden and Saddam Hussein were eradicated and the war on terror is
seemingly not that urgent for the moment, and in light of US federal
budget constraints, the FBI needs to find new strategic reasons for more funds. Therefore, the "position" of "Chinese economic spies" has been greatly elevated.
What the FBI has done is bound to injure Sino-US relations. But it is US
society that will suffer the most. Many Americans will hence think that
their economy is fine, their companies have no problems at all and the
only issue is the threat from Chinese economic espionage.
It looks to them like Chinese intelligence services and civilian
business spies are much more powerful than the FBI, CIA and other
non-governmental intelligence forces combined. China is not capable in
every category except for spy technology. This is the logic of the FBI.
If we take a good look at China's overall development in this
changing world, you will see that one-third of global new technical
patents are now created by Chinese companies every year. Innovation has
also become China's national slogan. China will eventually be able to
challenge the West's dominance in high technology.
China is well aware that it should learn from the West, especially the US, in terms of technology. But this is not stealing.
US universities are also attracting students from all over the world,
yet this brings more benefits than losses to the nation due to the
dissemination of knowledge.
Someone who always claims that his house was robbed and feels free to
suspect his friend or neighbor is the thief is very annoying, and that
is what the US is doing right now. The whole world knows that US
intelligent agencies are the most notorious regarding this issue.
We hope that the often-silent Chinese intelligence services could expose
some hard evidence of espionage by US spies, and make a spy movie
featuring US espionage, providing it with a mirror to look at itself.-
Global Times
Not a good idea to spy on friends
THERE's been so much dramatic news these days – from Greece's miseries
to Iran, China from blowhard Donald Trump – that the shocking story of
how America's National Security Agency has been spying on German and
French leadership has gone almost unnoticed.
Last year, it was revealed that the NSA had intercepted Chancellor
Angela Merkel's cell phone. She is supposed to be one of Washington's
most important allies and the key power in Europe. There was quiet
outrage in always subservient Germany, but no serious punitive action.
Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, was also bugged by American
intelligence. Her predecessor, Luiz Lula da Silva, was also apparently
bugged.
This year, came revelations that NSA and perhaps CIA had tapped the
phones of France's president, Francois Hollande, and his two
predecessors, Nicholas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac. Hollande ate humble
pie and could only summon some faint peeps of protest to Washington.
Luckily for the US, Charles de Gaulle was not around. After the US tried
to strong-arm France, "le Grand Charles" kicked the US and Nato out of
France.
Last week, WikiLeaks revealed that the NSA had bugged the phone of
Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, for over a decade.
Imagine the uproar and cries "the Gestapo is back" if it were revealed
that German intelligence had bugged the phones of President Barack Obama
or Secretary of State John Kerry.
A lot of Germans were really angry that their nation was being treated
by the Americans as a northern banana republic. Many recalled that in
the bad old days of East Germany its intelligence agency, Stasi,
monitored everyone's communications under the direct supervision of KGB
big brother at Moscow Centre.
The National Security Agency and CIA claim their electronic spying is
only aimed at thwarting attacks by anti-American groups (aka
"terrorism"). This claim, as shown by recent events, is untrue. One
supposes the rational must be a twist on the old adage "keep your
enemies close, but your friends even closer".
Ironically, the political leaders listed above – save perhaps Brazil's
da Silva – are all notably pro-American and responsive to Washington's
demands.
Why would the US risk alienating and humiliating some of its closet allies?
One suspects the reason is sheer arrogance … and because US intelligence
could do it. But must US intelligence really know what Mr Merkel is
making Mrs Merkel for dinner?
Until WikiLeaks blew the whistle, some European leaders may have known
they were being spied upon but chose to close their eyes and avoid
making an issue. Raising a fuss would have forced them to take action
against the mighty US.
Besides, British, Italian and French intelligence are widely believed to
have bugged most communications since the 1950's. But not, of course,
the White House or Pentagon. The only nation believed to have gotten
away with bugging the White House was Israel during the Clinton years.
The Pentagon was bugged by a number of foreign nations, including
Israel, China and Russia.
Humiliating Europe's leaders in this fashion is a gift to the growing
numbers of Europeans who believe their nations are being treated by the
US as vassal states.
There is widespread belief in Western Europe that US strategic policy
aims at preventing deeper integration of the EU and thwarting a common
foreign policy or a powerful European military. Britain serves as a
Trojan horse for America's strategic interests in Europe.
Way back in the 1960's, then German defence minister Franz Josef
Strauss, an ardent proponent of a truly united Europe, thundered that
Europeans would not play spearmen to America's atomic knights. But, of
course, that's just what happened.
The US still runs and finances Nato in the same way the Soviet Union
commanded the Warsaw Pact. Washington calls on Europe for troop
contingents in its Middle East and south Asian colonial wars in the same
way that the Persian Empire summoned its vassals to war.
Many Germans and French, both right and left, would like their leaders
to react more forcefully to NSA's ham-handed spying. However, Merkel and
Hollande are both political jellyfish eager to evade any confrontation
with Big Brother in Washington. Maybe he has too much dirt on them.
But a confrontation is inevitable one day if Europe is to regain its true independence that was lost after World War II.
By Eric S. Margolis who is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com
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