On October 4th, 2011, Reuters reported on how Mike Rogers (R), chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee, accused China of widespread cyber economic espionage. Rogers was quoted saying "China's economic espionage has reached an intolerable level and I believe that the United States and our allies in Europe and Asia have an obligation to confront Beijing and demand that they put a stop to this piracy. Beijing is waging a massive trade war on us all, and we should band together to pressure them to stop." Representative C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger, the senior Democrat on the intelligence committee, agreed with Rogers: "We basically feel very strongly … that we are being attacked in an aggressive way by China, possibly Russia, other countries."
Rogers went on to say that reported cyber attacks were just "the tip of the iceberg" because many U.S. firms were afraid to announce that they suffered a cyberattack for fear of retribution. However, behind closed doors, companies describe attacks as originating in China. "Attributing this espionage isn't easy, but talk to any private sector cyber analyst, and they will tell you there is little doubt that this is a massive campaign being conducted by the Chinese government," Rogers said.
The source article can be found here.
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Note Representative Rogers' statements about trade war in the context of a US bill designed to force Beijing to let its currency rise.
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