The United States will issue a formal diplomatic note to China expressing concern about cyber attacks that hit Google and dozens of other companies, and that researchers say originated in that country. “We will be issuing a formal demarche to the Chinese government in Beijing on this issue in the coming days, probably early next week,” US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Friday. “It will express our concern for this incident and request information from China as to an explanation of how it happened and what they plan to do about it.”
Political theater if you ask me.
True, but this is exactly the kind of political theater (public, global, embarrassing) that the Chinese don’t like. In Asia, its called ‘losing face’.
This is precisely why the US government is playing this political game now. They know China wishes this whole thing would just ‘go away’… so they’re going to milk it for as long as they can.
Remember how hyperbolic and over-the-top China behaved when that US recon plane collided with one of their fighter jets? They believed that incident was a ‘loss of face’ for the US, so they played it to the hilt.
Well, surprise!, they aren’t the only ones who can play that game…
It comes with a real-world practical side-effect though.
Because of this incident, the official advice now in both France and Germany is “DON’T USE IE”.
http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2010/01/17/la-france-et-…
(please excuse the French)
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-01-16/germany-says-don-t-use-…
Considering the “browser ballot” in the EU, this is interesting timing.
Edited 2010-01-17 23:37 UTC
It gets worse for IE users:
http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerability_management/security/attack…
Removed duplicate post.
Edited 2010-01-18 00:12 UTC
.
Ha! As if the US will say a peep to their largest creditor, when they have over $2 TRILLION in treasuries coming up for auction this year, and are desperate to have China bid on them.
Of course China isn’t going to bid, as they’ve stopped almost all buying of US debt.
About 25% of the US’s debt is foreign debt, and 25% of that foreign debt is owned by China. That’s about 6% of the US’s total debt, or around $700bn. I don’t mean to say that $700bn isn’t anything to blink at, but they don’t hold nearly as many cards as you imply.
Ed: and I wouldn’t exactly say anyone is “begging,” either. http://blog.taragana.com/business/2009/12/29/treasury-yields-retrea…
Edited 2010-01-17 01:47 UTC
It’s 11% now thanks to Obama’s spending spree.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/patrick-takahashi/how-serious-is-our-…
There is an old saying that is relevant here.
“When you owe the bank $10,000, you have a problem. When you owe the bank $10,000,000, then the bank has a problem.”