According to the Associated Press, the U.S. government is trying to determine if Chinese officials covertly hacked into a Commerce Department laptop computer brought to Beijing during a recent trip by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez.  The AP report notes that “Surreptitious copying is believed to have occurred when a laptop was left unattended during Gutierrez’s trip to Beijing for trade talks in December.”

The Commerce Department would not comment on the story because the alleged incident is under investigation.  But it’s not hard to believe the story’s plausibility, given well-documented accounts of surveillance and spying by the Chinese on American visitors.

Incidents like these offer a good insight into why the Chinese have proven so intransigent during recent trade talks.  Their “close scrutiny” of U.S. officials has given them plenty of advance notice/warning on Washington’s internal talking points.

Politeness is not working when it comes to dealing with Beijing.  If the laptop incident proves to be true, it will merely offer further proof that China doesn’t play by the rules.

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 6:57 pm and is filed under Holding China Accountable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.