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The United States Defense Department has released its annual report on China-related security issues. The report ranks China as the top source of economic and cyber espionage in the world. Here's more.
Released on May 18, the US Defense Department report "Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China" notes that Chinese military spending is increasing exponentially—despite remaining significantly behind that of the United States.
China's official data release of March this year showed that the 2012 military budget will reach 670 billion RMB (USD $106 billion), an 11.2% increase over 2011. This continues a two decades-long trend, in which has seen double-digit jumps in military spending nearly every year. However Pentagon officials estimate that actual military spending is far higher than reported figures, a view shared by most independent analysts.
One area in which China's achievements are without equal is in the realm of cyber and economic espionage activities, where China's Communist Party-controlled spy apparatus leads the world. The Pentagon report cites China as the likely chief source of such operations worldwide, many of which are used as, quote, a "tool to collect strategic intelligence."
Among the targets of cyber operations listed by the report are a number of private enterprises. The apparently China-based intelligence breaches of these companies revealed both valuable intellectual property, and key information related to United States defense projects. While the report does not elaborate on the extent or sensitivity of these breaches, it does emphasise their importance in the balance of security between the United States and China.
The report also indicates that, quote, "Chinese actors are the world's most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage"
