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U.S. Plays Down Google Breaches to Gain China’s Support on Iran
The Obama administration has softened its tone in responding to cyber attacks that may have originated in China, betting that playing down the dispute will help the U.S. obtain the Asian superpower’s cooperation on foreign-policy goals, security experts said.
That calculation may yield short-term benefits such as Chinese support for additional sanctions against Iran and reining in North Korea, though in the longer term it could wind up endangering U.S. economic leadership, said Tom Kellermann, a former World Bank security official.
“The U.S. is in a very difficult position,” said Kellermann, a vice president at Core Security Technologies Inc., a Boston-based security-software company. PresidentBarack Obama needs “help from China.”
Mountain View, California-based Google Inc., owner of the world’s most popular search engine, disclosed in January that it had been the target of cyber attacks that resulted in the theft of intellectual property and the infiltration of e-mail accounts belonging to people active in Chinese human-rights causes. (...)
The U.S. response falls short of actions that could deter future attacks such as threatening sanctions or at least complaining to the World Trade Organization, Kellermann said.
Currency, Trade
Complicating the U.S. posture are long-standing issues such as North Korea’s nuclear program, China’s position as the No. 1 holder of U.S. debt, the trade imbalance between the two nations and the U.S. push for a revaluation of the Chinese currency, the security experts said. (...)
Cyber infiltrations over the past few years have resulted in the theft of software code that has allowed the Chinese to avoid research-and-development costs and sell cheaper products, Kellermann said. China has denied involvement in computer attacks. Google officials have said that while they are certain the attacks originated in China, they haven’t determined who was behind them.
Hong Kong Move
Last week, after a two-month clash with China over censorship, Google shut its mainland Chinese search engine and redirected users to its Hong Kong site. Google (...) blamed the Chinese government-controlled firewall for blocking service on the search engine, which has been restored. (...)
[T]he Office of the U.S. Trade Representative issued a report saying that the absence of stated Chinese censorship rules has made it difficult for Internet companies to function there. (...)
Taiwan Arms
Chinese and U.S. ties deteriorated after the Obama administration announced Jan. 29 that it would sell arms to Taiwan, a move Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said March 7 had “seriously damaged” relations. China protested again after Obama met in February with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader. China viewed the actions as an affront to Chinese sovereignty.
More recently, the administration has tried to ease tensions. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg on March 29 reaffirmed the U.S. views that Taiwan shouldn’t be independent and Tibet is part of China.
U.S. officials are pressing China to support more sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. Russia and China have used their veto power in the United Nations Security Council to block the U.S.- and European-led sanctions effort.
Iran Talks
Clinton said last week that China was beginning to ease its policy. Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, said on CNN on March 31 that China would join talks on drafting tougher sanctions on Iran.
While Clinton said in a Jan. 21 speech that she expected “Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough review” of their Internet policies, she has distanced herself from the Google dispute. (...)
The U.S. may be disappointed if it is hoping that the soft- pedal approach will compel China to cooperate on Iran, said Carolyn Bartholomew, vice chairwoman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a Washington-based group created by Congress.
“In the early 1990s it was we couldn’t push them on human rights because we needed their cooperation on North Korea,” she said. “It took a good 15 years before we started getting any sort of cooperation.”
