Thursday, February 14, 2008

About the Chinese Government's Claim that It Does No Spying of Any Kind Ever

The Washington Post reported Tuesday (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/12/AR2008021200316_pf.html) that a Defense Department analyst and a former engineer for Boeing Co. were accused Monday in separate spy cases with helping deliver military secrets to the Chinese government, the Justice Department said. Additionally, two immigrants from China and Taiwan accused of working with the defense analyst were arrested after an FBI raid Monday morning on a New Orleans home where one of them lived. The two cases ---based in Alexandria, Va., and Los Angeles --- have no connection, and investigators said it was merely a coincidence that charges would be brought against both on the same day.

The response of the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao is reported as follows:
"So-called talk that China runs spying activities in the United States is totally fictitious and has ulterior motives. We demand the U.S. side abandon its Cold War thinking and stop its gratuitous criticism of China. I think everyone is weary of this kind of farce, and it should end" . . . The United States should "do more to help bilateral trust and friendship between the peoples of both nations."

So the Chinese Government's "official" position is that the Chinese Government does no spying of any kind ever. I don't know why they make this claim. Better to say nothing than bring shame on themselves by making up an absurd statement that suggests the foreigners are so foolish as to believe it.


An interesting related artcle in the February 15 Washington Post entitled: "Even Spies Embrace China's Free Market: U.S. Says Some Tech Theives aer Entrepreneurs, Not Government Agents" can be found at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/14/AR2008021403550_pf.html

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