NSA hacking scandal overshadows Chinese online assault

FOR more than a decade, a relentless campaign by China to steal valuable, confidential information from US corporations flourished with barely a peep from Washington. And now it might never be stopped.

The secret online assault was well understood by the last two administrations. The programme’s scope was confirmed in a 2009 classified inquiry that discovered Chinese hackers — many of them traced to facilities connected to the People’s Liberation Army — had penetrated not only all of the corporate computer networks analysed, but also every examined computer system used by state or federal agencies.

Still, the US state department warned — as it had for years — that publicly confronting China over its online economic warfare would damage relations with Beijing, so American government statements about the hacking did not disclose the scope of China’s efforts.