Tom Donilon and then-Vice President of China Xi Jinping July 2012 / AP
Under pressure from American industry to curb Chinese cyber attacks, White House national security adviser Thomas Donilon warned China on Monday that the United States will defend its computer networks from the attacks.
Donilon said U.S. businesses share serious concerns “about sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential business information, and proprietary technologies through cyber intrusions emanating from China on an unprecedented scale,” in a speech on Asia.
“The international community cannot afford to tolerate such activity from any country,” he told a meeting of the Asia Society in New York. “As the president said in the state of the union, we will take action to protect our economy against cyber-threats.”
The remarks were the administration’s first public acknowledgement of China’s large-scale computer hacking that has involved government entities, including military cyberwarfare units. Administration officials previously avoided criticizing Beijing for the hacking that has included theft of both government and defense secrets and proprietary corporate data stolen by hackers who broke into computer networks.
