news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081120/ap_on_go_ot/us_china
China's president Hu Jintao, center, reviews the guard of honor next to Javier AP - China's president Hu Jintao, center, reviews the guard of honor next to Javier Velazquez, the president ... WASHINGTON - China has accelerated computer espionage attacks on the US government, defense contractors and American businesses, a congressional advisory panel said Thursday. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission also said in its annual report to lawmakers that aggressive Chinese space programs are allowing Beijing to more effectively target US military forces. "China is stealing vast amounts of sensitive information from US computer networks," said Larry Wortzel, chairman of the commission set up by Congress in 2000 to advise, investigate and report on US-China issues. The commission of six Democrats and six Republicans said in the unanimously approved report that China's massive military modernization and its "impressive but disturbing" space and computer warfare capabilities "suggest China is intent on expanding its sphere of control even at the expense of its Asian neighbors and the United States." The commission recommended that lawmakers provide money for US government programs that would monitor and protect computer networks. Messages left with the Chinese Embassy in Washington were not immediately returned. But officials in Beijing have responded to past reports of this kind by saying that China does not try to undermine other countries' interests and seeks strong ties with the United States. The report comes two months before President-elect Barack Obama takes office. The Democratic Obama administration probably will continue the Republican Bush administration's efforts to work with and encourage China, a veto-holding member of the UN Security Council that the United States needs in nuclear confrontations with Iran and North Korea. During the campaign for president, then-candidate Obama said that "China is rising, and it's not going away," adding that Beijing is "neither our enemy nor our friend; In the commission's report, military strategist Wang Huacheng is quoted as calling US dependence on space assets and information technology its "soft ribs." China's space program is "steadily increasing the vulnerability of US assets," the report said. For instance, improvements in satellite imagery allow China to locate US carrier battle groups more accurately, faster and from farther away. People's Liberation Army officer and author Cai Fengzhen is quoted as saying that the "area above ground, airspace and outer space are inseparable and integrated. They are the strategic commanding height of modern informationalized warfare." "If this becomes Chinese policy," the report said, "it could set the stage for conflict with the United States and other nations that expect the right of passage for their spacecraft." The commission also criticized China for violating commitments to avoid trade-distorting measures, adopting new laws that may restrict foreign access to China's markets and keeping its currency undervalued. It recommended that Congress enact legislation to respond to China's currency manipulation and create enforceable disclosure requirements on investments in the United States for foreign sovereign wealth funds and other foreign state-controlled companies.
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