On April 2nd, 2012, Jane Perlez reported for the New York Times on a recent report by an influential Chinese policy analyst. According to the NYT, Wang Jisi co-authored an article called Addressing U.S.-China Strategic Distrust. The article considered how China views the U.S. as a decling power, and argued that China is "the likely long-range winner if the American economy and domestic political system continue to stumble." This, according to the article, might lead the two countries to become open antagonists.
Ok, big deal, similar sentimiments have floated around for a while. However, the article noted that Mr. Wang is pretty well situated to understand the mindset of the Chinese leadership. He sits on the leadership boards of both the Communist Party and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His blunt words are striking, and offer a pretty strong insight into the minds of senior Chinese leadership.
What's the connection to cyber? The NYT quoted one particularly damning passage from Mr. Wang's article: "[the U.S. is no longer] that awesome, nor is it trustworthy, and its example to the world and admonitions to China should therefore be much discounted.”
You can get Mr. Wang's article here, from Brookings. Kenneth G. Liberthal was a co-author.
You can find the NYT source article here.
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If Chinese leadership sees the U.S. as a decling power, and its admonitions as something to be discounted or ignored, then why should we expect them to stop their cyber-espionage? Even if we admonish them openly about their cyber-espionage (as some lawmakers have started doing), will they even care? I doubt it. So why are we tiptoeing around this issue?
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