China’s continued cyber espionage against the United States is undermining economic relations, White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice warned Beijing on Wednesday.
Rice said in unusually forceful language China must curtail government-backed cyber spying or risk undermining close trade ties.
“Cyber-enabled economic espionage hurts China as well as the U.S., because American businesses are increasingly concerned about the costs of doing business in China,” Rice said during a speech at Georgetown University.
“If meaningful action is not taken now, this behavior will undermine the economic relationship that benefits both our nations.”
The Obama administration is under pressure from the private sector to take action against China for a widespread campaign of cyber attacks that have included theft of both government and corporate secrets, including data on the military’s most advanced warplane, the new F-35 jet fighter.
Major corporations have told the administration that the Chinese have conducted large-scale intrusions into networks and compromised valuable data.
So far, the administration has turned down options posed by security and intelligence agencies to take action against China.
