Saturday 21 November 2009
No place for hypocrisy on national security
As the world’s only superpower, the United States is accustomed to setting standards of conduct across a range of issues. These include human rights, free trade, currency manipulation and illicit drug control. Whether the US is in a position to moralise depends, to a large extent, on the countries being praised or criticised. One area where Washington has been most vocal has been its persistent criticism of Chinese espionage against US interests. In the world of intelligence, everyone spies on everyone else. Is the complaint from the US not a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black? Perhaps there is an acceptable espionage threshold beyond which spies from one nation should not go against another. But no one has specified what that might be.
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No place for hypocrisy on national security
21 November 2009
As the world’s only superpower, the United States is accustomed to setting standards of conduct across a range of issues. These include human rights, free trade, currency manipulation and illicit drug control. Whether the US is in a position to moralise depends, to a large extent, on the countries being praised or criticised. One area where Washington has been most vocal has been its persistent criticism of Chinese espionage against US interests. In the world of intelligence, everyone spies on everyone else. Is the complaint from the US not a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black? Perhaps there is an acceptable espionage threshold beyond which spies from one nation should not go against another. But no one has specified what that might be.
In a new report to the US Congress, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission says China had become “the most aggressive nation” in spying on the US, and in recruiting Americans as spies. This characterisation may or may not be exaggerated. But we can safely assume US intelligence, military and commerce departments have not been shy about reciprocating with similar efforts against China. The operation of US Navy oceanographic spy ships off the Chinese coast comes to mind. The annual report has also dragged Hong Kong into the controversy. It says the city’s customs standards are slipping, so mainland interests could easily use Hong Kong as a transshipment point for sensitive technologies barred from being exported to the mainland. The report did not cite a single instance, and commission chairwoman Carolyn Bartholomew admitted the conclusion was drawn by researchers who “heard accounts” about slipping export-control standards.
In the US, restrictions on technology transfer are usually dressed up as a matter of national security. But when they involve widely available commercial technology, they look more like trade protectionism. If the aim of the new report is to be alarmist, it has succeeded. But if it is to be fair-minded, it leaves a lot to be desired. There is nothing wrong with a nation protecting its national security interests. But we could do without the hypocrisy.
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