Chinese spies getting more active against US, says intelligence chief
Agencies in Washington 04 February 2010
President Barack Obama’s top intelligence official says Chinese spies have increased their work in the United States.
Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said in written testimony to Congress that China over the past year had boosted its intelligence collection and processing operations against the US.
He said Chinese intelligence services “continue to expand and operate in and outside the United States”.
US-Chinese ties are tense following the Obama administration’s announcement last week that it will sell Taiwan US$6.4 billion worth of weapons.
But State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said on Tuesday the bilateral relationship was “remarkably stable”, despite a flurry of spats between the two powers.
“Our interests coincide in many areas and our interests collide occasionally in a handful of those,” he said. “And we work through them and will continue to work through them through the kind of ongoing dialogue that has characterised our interaction with China” since Obama’s administration came to office. He underlined the “vital importance” of the economic links between the “two most powerful nations in the world”.
The US is clashing with China over Obama’s planned meetings with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, US arms sales to Taiwan, internet freedom in China, climate change, and efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Meanwhile, a Democratic senator said he had asked 30 US companies, including Apple, Facebook and Skype, for information on their human rights practices in China in the aftermath of Google’s decision to no longer co-operate with Chinese internet censorship efforts.
“Google sets a strong example in standing up to the Chinese government’s continued failure to respect the fundamental human rights of free expression and privacy,” Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin said in a statement. “I look forward to learning more about whether other American companies are willing to follow Google’s lead.”
Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, said his panel will hold a hearing next month to question Google and other companies on their business practices in countries that restrict internet freedom.
Meanwhile, Democratic leaders of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China said they will hold a hearing on February 10 to examine the impact of China’s internet policies on humans and development of the commercial rule of law in China.
Durbin’s letter asks each company for details of its business in China and what, if any, measures it will implement to ensure that its products and services do not facilitate human rights abuses by the Chinese government.
The senior Senate Democrat sent one of four slightly different letters to following 30 companies: Acer, Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Cisco, Dell, eBay, Facebook, Fortinet, Hewlett-Packard, IAC, IBM, Juniper, Lenovo (SEHK: 0992, announcements, news) , McAfee, Motorola, News Corp, Nokia, Nokia Siemens, Oracle, Research In Motion, SAP, Siemens, Skype, Sprint Nextel, Toshiba, Twitter, Verizon, Vodafone and Websense.
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Chinese spies getting more active against US, says intelligence chief
Agencies in Washington
04 February 2010
President Barack Obama’s top intelligence official says Chinese spies have increased their work in the United States.
Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said in written testimony to Congress that China over the past year had boosted its intelligence collection and processing operations against the US.
He said Chinese intelligence services “continue to expand and operate in and outside the United States”.
US-Chinese ties are tense following the Obama administration’s announcement last week that it will sell Taiwan US$6.4 billion worth of weapons.
But State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said on Tuesday the bilateral relationship was “remarkably stable”, despite a flurry of spats between the two powers.
“Our interests coincide in many areas and our interests collide occasionally in a handful of those,” he said. “And we work through them and will continue to work through them through the kind of ongoing dialogue that has characterised our interaction with China” since Obama’s administration came to office. He underlined the “vital importance” of the economic links between the “two most powerful nations in the world”.
The US is clashing with China over Obama’s planned meetings with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, US arms sales to Taiwan, internet freedom in China, climate change, and efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Meanwhile, a Democratic senator said he had asked 30 US companies, including Apple, Facebook and Skype, for information on their human rights practices in China in the aftermath of Google’s decision to no longer co-operate with Chinese internet censorship efforts.
“Google sets a strong example in standing up to the Chinese government’s continued failure to respect the fundamental human rights of free expression and privacy,” Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin said in a statement. “I look forward to learning more about whether other American companies are willing to follow Google’s lead.”
Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, said his panel will hold a hearing next month to question Google and other companies on their business practices in countries that restrict internet freedom.
Meanwhile, Democratic leaders of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China said they will hold a hearing on February 10 to examine the impact of China’s internet policies on humans and development of the commercial rule of law in China.
Durbin’s letter asks each company for details of its business in China and what, if any, measures it will implement to ensure that its products and services do not facilitate human rights abuses by the Chinese government.
The senior Senate Democrat sent one of four slightly different letters to following 30 companies: Acer, Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Cisco, Dell, eBay, Facebook, Fortinet, Hewlett-Packard, IAC, IBM, Juniper, Lenovo (SEHK: 0992, announcements, news) , McAfee, Motorola, News Corp, Nokia, Nokia Siemens, Oracle, Research In Motion, SAP, Siemens, Skype, Sprint Nextel, Toshiba, Twitter, Verizon, Vodafone and Websense.
Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse
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