The Way to Fight China's Hacking

Google wouldn't be human if it weren't relieved that the latest Chinese hacking incident targeted not a hole in Google's defenses but a gullibility of its customers. The proper term is "spear phishing" for the use of email cons to scam a specific, chosen individual into revealing his or her password, allowing unauthorized access to inboxes and online accounts.

In a blog post this week, Google announced that the latest attacks seem to come from Jinan, China. The targets were the Gmail accounts of "senior U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists, officials in several Asian countries (predominantly South Korea), military personnel and journalists." The bait: an attachment that opened an imitation of Google's Gmail log-in page, inviting users to enter passwords so they could be zipped off to spies or criminals in China.

On Thursday, the White House acknowledged some of its own personnel were among those whose Gmail accounts were targeted.

The FBI is investigating, but what might really help is Google's example catching on. Dozens of firms are known to have been similarly mugged, including GE, Morgan Stanley and Disney. But most remain mum, fearing to antagonize China. Nothing could be better calculated to make sure the problem gets worse—as the world should have learned from a highly relevant precedent, the epidemic of high seas piracy in and around Southern China in the mid-1990s.

Were profiteering Chinese military officials behind the sea raids?

There's more: click it and read it.

Another excerpt:
Mr. Ellen's comments appeared to break the dam of silence.
Hong Kong, then a British colony, had amassed the evidence but had been reluctant to publicize it in the run-up to the colony's fraught return to mainland sovereignty.
Now it wasn't, detailing nearly 50 cases in an 18-month period, right down to the serial numbers of the Chinese military vessels involved in piracy attacks.

Some of the attacks were so brazen—like the Alicia Star, whose cargo of cigarettes was unloaded on Hainan Island and the ship itself sold for the benefit of the Hainan government—that Beijing tried to pass them off as legitimate "anti-smuggling exercises."
Others hinted frightfully at a mainland bordering on anarchy.
A missing Australian freighter was eventually tracked to a Chinese salvage yard after a wrecking crew discovered, in a sealed storage locker, the remains of 10 seamen who had been doused with gasoline and burned alive.

The plot thickens...

China is at war with us. They are winning the economic war and now engaging in technological warfare. This is a bloodless (so far) 21st century war. Our government fails to acknowledge the fact and fight back no doubt because the government is catering to the economic interests of the multinational corporation and Wall Street banks instead of the long term interests of the nation. As a result, the big money that today benefits from the China trade is being protected while the nation’s manufacturing infrastructure is gored. We see the consequences in the loss of 20 million manufacturing jobs over the past decade, jobs we desperately need today.

The way to fight an economic war is to respond in a way that will hurt the attacker. Place a 30% tariff on all Chinese imports today. Within a year it will kill their export machine and bring them to their knees without firing a shot.

For starters:

Stop funding our next adversary. Never before in world history has such a powerful nation as America, willingly handed their power to a larger rival.

It is suicidal folly, for America to continue this path. On this, Trump was completely, totally correct.

Tariffs now.

Do you think Wal*mart or any Republicans are aware of this ... or cares?

“Free trade” (which is neither free, nor trade - since it is only one way because of closed markets for American exports) is the problem.

It must be stopped through a real, combative and pro-USA trade policy focused only on American jobs and manufacturing, or America will be destroyed.

This is not a game. Our nation is under attack. “War by other means”.

We are not fighting back.

In a 21st century setting, I disagree with you. I feel the goal of free trade should be to bring the entire world to first world status (not just China, but all the world) while at the same time benefitting American consumers. And trade is the best tool to do so where each country benefits from the others. A win-win scenario for all those involved. The developing countries get know-how and the developed countries enjoy the cheap labor.

However, with that said, in a draconian way, I do agree with you. As the rest of the world rises, it does soften the Pax-Americana that has existed since WWII. Not because riches were lost in America (the US is wealthier today than ever contrary to popular believe), but rather the rest of the world is growing in wealth and influence.

But I believe it is wrong to avoid trade for maintaining Pax-Americana. Trade should be modified if it hurts the labor class in America beyond what the American economy can fold back into the labor market, but not for maintaining Pax-Americana.

What China does is her business and what America does is America's business. If excessive trade adversely affects individuals, then some adjustments need to be made. But to criticize trade simply because 1.4 people are industrailizing, then you are simply taking on an ancient attitude similar to what happened in ancient Greece. Where one state attacked another for nothing more than simply rising in power.

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