Re: Spying
1880's? Dude... Ever hear of the Caesar cypher? Know who invented it? Know why? Ever read about the reception that King David's emissaries received when they went to the funeral of his friend? As long as there have been governments, there have been spies.
There are two differences here. 1) Historically, a lot of Chinese spying has been government support of industrial espionage. This continues, and is an extreme example of unfair competition. 2) The official policy of the Chinese government is that their entire society is to be directed towards this end.
As I have continuously said, to do business within the territory of government X, you have to comply with the rules of government X. If I were defending the government's position without resorting to separation of powers & the like, I would just take these official declarations and say, "we expect that all Chinese companies are abiding by these declarations".
Biting the hand that feeds IT
