In a nutshell, those who have lived in the PRC have been indoctrinated with CCP ideology, which promotes deceit, craftiness, and cheating. Then you have the opening of the economy during the 1990's coupled with people's loss of hope for democratic reforms following the Tiananmen Square Massacre of '89, both of which spurred the decline in morality we're now witnessing. What you have is a virtual mad dash to get rich by any means possible...fair trading practices, health standards, product quality, intellectual property rights, environmental laws be damned. And it's only going to get worse before it gets better. China is sustained by the production of counterfeit and pirated goods. If they are removed, the regime in Beijing will have thousands of more riots to deal with, on top of the annual 100,000+ they have now. Not to mention, the CCP (and those in cahoots with them) benefit by the pirate/counterfeit trade by amassing enormous sums of wealth and undermining foreign businesses.

C.W. , NY, U.S.

I just have to love the lashing out by the very-pro china(current times) crowd at the west.

You realize the irony, of sorts. China is rule/governed by a Western ideology. Commmunism. Hello!!

KoS, Indy, IN

I live in a third world country that does not enforce copyright laws, to think that china wud not borrow, steal, copy or duplicate information, software and any other misc product is foolish. The issue is survival, the country i live in has an annual income of $1000 per yer or less. The average working person could never afford to buy a "licensed" version of software or a dvd. I see copy cat brand name products everywhere and everyday. The people that buy them know that they are fake but dont care. Again the issue is not ethics rather survival. The governments of these countries hold their people in bondage economically and politically. You will never stop the "stealing" of brandnames of products untill the wages rise to meet the regular price of a "real" version of the product. Even then you will still have "pirates" looking to make money "the easy way" Electronic espionage is no different than a street vendor selling copies of disney movies, only at a higher level.

Lowell, gaylord, mi

"I teach engineering at a local university and I have to say that the students from mainland China are the worst when it comes to shamelessly copying assignments" -M. Alexander Clarke, Calgary, Canada/AB

I couldnt agree more. I am a Malaysian national of Chinese descent, and based on my first hand experiences, cheating and plagiarism is endemic in Uni students from mainland China and India. This has always amazed me because unlike British students who pay £3,000 a year in tuition fees, international students pay between £8,000 and £12,000 a year. International students at Imperial College pay £18,000 a year! .. and instead of getting as much as they can from their education, they spend their days working at sandwich factories and takeaways for money to buy branded handbags and clothes, and then copy their mate's coursework.

Pathetic.

Chee, Coventry,

The amount of anti-sinicism is remarkable amongst these letters: and the amount of hypocrisy with regards to espionage committed by other countries: Russia is unwilling to cooperate or apologise for the death of Litvenenko; UK and USA regularly engage in espionage on enemies (and even allies) and display it openly at press conferences.
The main story is that cyber-espionage is very real and not that China is the sole culprit.

James, London,

Well, it is just a mater of time before things start to get real ugly. We cant really praise the Chinese ethics, just check on the Mattel case and several other issues we have had in the last years with Chinese products, they don't really care if kids are getting cancer, western capitalism is harsh, but what the chinese are doing is insane.

Conrado Balbinot, Caxias do Sul, Brazil

TO VINCENT: unfriendlywindows.com would be much more appropriate than friendlywindows. If I was the Chinese I would never buy this domain and my prediction is that they never will!

William Dors, London,

Would not this be a great way to destroy the Chinese military servers? Insert a virus into data made attractive enough to be stolen; then wait for the complete destruction of all chinese defence capabilities relying on computers. Back to the stone age again!!!

Ben Genevieve, Perth, Western Australia

We must have great care with China. As DOES NOT have the interests of the West at heart and is one step short of being a true criminal enterprise state.

Tim, Liverpool,

I don't understand how people like Noah Magnuson can make sweeping statements such as "It is well known by the CIA .. that China is the number one spy threat". Excuse me, what do you think the CIA does? I am sure there are ops carried out by that body your president doesn't know and doesn't want to know about. The sole difference being they use technology so cutting edge, they rarely ever get caught.
And as for all this nonsense about China amassing a mammoth military ready to strike other Asian countries, one of your stealth fighters equates about the spending to entire Chinese military division. And of course what you are doing in Iraq doesn't count as an invasion of soveriegn nation does it.
Stop the spin.

Terrence Leung, Hong Kong, China

How could hackers surpass the ECHELOT system-all mails are filtered by USA._ ECHELOT...
does it make BINGO who the real culprits are here, do you all need a spin doctor to tell?

duke_widin, Shanghai , Peoples Repulik of China

The US have been tampering with Chinese products to engage make China look bad. This is another attempt of the west to do the same thing. We are already at war with China - but not a military war.

Pete, London, UK

I do hope they translate everything with a translator from microsoft...

Marianne, Gera, Germany

Sir,
It happens one way or another, remember the Israelis selling on hi-tech US defence technology despite various agreements?

SC, London, United Kingdom

Economic espionage ranking:

Number one: Japan
Number two: Sweden
Number three: Israel

Political espionage ranking:

Number one: U.S.A.( over 2,700 employees at an U.K. based centre interecepting everything).
Number two: U.K.
Number three: France?Russia?Germany?

China?Germany?South Koreea?Australia?Canada?

George The Second, Georgetown, Canada

this spying is very dangerous, why, pretty soon China will take over manufacturing and all our stuff will be made there. \\sarcasm off

Tony Gero, Londinium,

I teach engineering at a local university and I have to say that the students from mainland China are the worst when it comes to shamelessly copying assignments. Just the other day, a Chinese student handed me a photo copy of his freinds paper with the other student's name crossed out and his substituted. And he seemed to see nothing wring with it at all! So when I hear accusations of China hacking into other government computers, I take them vaery seriously and I too have come to question the intents of Chinese workers at my University

M. Alexander Clarke, Calgary, Canada/AB

Germany's greatest assets are it's intellectual property rights, and it needs to protect these investments as the Chinese can easily mimic productions in Germany at a cheaper cost that cost Germans billions to develop. It is unfair for the Chinese to take this short cut as it doesn't encourage real entrepreneurship and encourages the view that China's economic growth is a temporary one with no long term view for development, just another third world producer. It's time for China to stop being a Parrot and start playing by the rules. Only this way will they ever really achieve any kind of recognition for the country's efforts.

Andrew Bilbow, Köln, Germany

The facts are interesting, but the emotional emphasis here is silly.

All major countries are constantly doing these things.

For God's sake, the United States, through the crew-cut thugs at the FBI and NSA, spies on its own citizens. They can legally check your library reading, record your phone, and follow your Internet wanderings under the Patriot Act.

Can you imagine what they undertake against 'foreigners'?

Israel conducts ferocious spying operations against the United States, who in fact is its greatest benefactor and subsidizes the country's existence to the tune of $500/ Israeli/ year.

JOHN CHUCKMAN, Toronto, Canada

Well, I think Mr. Nick Pulskamp is another typical example of arrogant Americans, you know nothing about China and Chinese, but you abuse them.

Chinese have no culture concept of ethics? The fact is when Confucius educated his students with loyalty, morality and responsibility 2500 years ago, your ancestors were fighting each other in order to steal technologies and scrambled for population and fortune, meanwhile, they were also struggling to remember each other, because they don't really have right to use surnames unless they were peerage.

After your ancestors invaded China and robbed her, they set fire to the palaces, killed elder, women and children; but eventually they say "China is a barbarism nation". Now you civilizations still invading other countries, plundering their resources, forcing their people to accept your sense of worth, abusing them with rumors and bias, and finally, unsurprisingly, you say you have ethics.

Mark, Beijing, P.R.China

Zose Chermans have met their match! And the rest of us must beware. It's obvious that countries are trying to do each other in through the Internet, etc... Kind of typically human, don't you think? Trying to do in the other guy is a little fancier now, that's all.
But, what are things going to be like in a hundred years?

luke fisher, Ottawa, Canada

What a surprise - a state organisation engaging in espionage and obtaining information for nefarious purposes. Hang on, isn't this the basis for about 27% of all exciting movies and books for the last 87 years?

Come on kids, wake up and smell the scorched keyboards as Hollywood works on a script of the tale.

As for any kind of shock or horror, forget it; the only story here is that someone was stupid enough to get caught and dumb enough to think that they can get away with denying it.

Kim, London, UK

The best response would be to direct aid to underground opponents of China's autocrats. Undermining Chinese web censors by means of viruses would be a good place to start.

Patrick Rioux, Frankfurt, Germany

I feel that such revelations will have a positive influence on security measures in western states in the future. It is highly possible that China is conducting such espionage against many other nations. How else will they attain superior technological and military data. The communist government of China is prepared to cheat and steal as they have proved many times in the past.

Arthur O'Looney, Bucharest, Rumania

The Euro Trash department Berlin is missleading the World,Beijing has got more important things to do than spying on loosers.

duke_widin, Shanghai , Peoples Repulik of China

All the might of the communist China is based on Western technologies and inventions and it comes as no surprise that China is increasing its espionage acitivity. They're trying to steal from the West as much as they can. It's naive to think that there is any ethics barrier for them. I wonder why the Germans have not taken precaution measures. Cyberattacks are common nowadays. This incident must be an alarming call not only for the Germans but all the West. Beware of China and hit back as strong as possible. Like cures like!

Eli, Taipei,

oh you're kidding me. are you actually saying that the americans, british - the british! hah! have been stealing and cheating and back-stabbing people across the globe for centuries! - and others don't indulge in corporate espionage?

corruption is not endemic. its just the level of subtlety that differs. and even that, is subjective; where some might feel obliged to reveal, others might not.

not because it hasn't happened, but rather there are reasons it can't be divulged.

open eyes, ladies and gents. the west aren't angels you know.

fairul reeza, kuala lumpur, malaysia

The majority of cyber-attacks on US and EU government computers originate from China. This fact is the primary source of outrage from these governments and their nations' media.

When a person is caught stealing it is decent that they apologise. When China does issue a formal apology then these Western governments can begin to treat China with the respect a nation of their size and ancient history deserves.

Rob Adams, Pembroke, USA / MA

I'm not surprised to be seeing this. Microsoft did sell China the Windows source code and that is just like giving only burglars a key. Some French Ministries use Mandriva-Linux and that is open source which means that the French Ministry administrators can secure their system, you need the source code though. If any Company or Ministry wants to stop hacking like this. Windows is not the system to do it with. Microsoft wouldn't let Congress have their source code, but they sold it to China. in It doesn't matter if every one else has the source if you haven't got it your position is untenable.

David White, Falmouth, Cornwall England

It is sad but true, defrauding someone in China is seen not as a crime but something akin to pride. China is corrupt to the core at every level.

Gregor, Shanghai,

Re: Nick Pulskamp

Nick old man, what you need is a girlfriend from the People's Republic so you get to understand Chinese social attitudes as they really are, a bit better. You'll find out that many Chinese are actually pretty ambivalent about what goes on in China, just as Americans often are about America.

Chinese are actually not that bad. To me you seem to be propagating Yellow Peril stereotypes that don't really fit my experience at all.

And incidentally, I swear, no American has ever tried to penetrate a PRC computer. No, no, never! Never! Why even the very thought is shocking! Shocking!

Mathew, Toronto, Canada

Am I the only one who thinks that having to wade through hundreds of gigabytes of documents written by civil servants in a foreign language is more of a punishment than anything else?

One hopes that that if the counter-surveillance operation was capable of stopping further breaches it was also capable of feeding the thieves many gigabytes of false data. A Chinese economics student tasked with looking for policy details in a large tome might well be slowed down by having to read the entire works of Thomas Mann instead, for example. Or even noise - reading gibberish in a foreign language is a particularly mind-numbing task!

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

Being Honest has never been the trait of Being politician, nor for the people who serve for politics. it is the same no matter ur from German, USA, or China.

clare, Bejing, China

I think it is really unbelievable for this accusing. China stands for a kind of challenging power in the world, and many Chinese have strong belief in Chinese traditional cultural ethics, though some not. While it is impossible for Chinese government to participate in such un-ethical action. When you intend to accuse someone, the most important thing is to have the undoubted evident. Moreover, do not attack the whole country because of the mistake caused by minorities.

Jimmy Xu, Beijing, China

Why such outrage? It's a simple case of spying, there isn't a country on earth that doesn't do it. Things have moved on from James Bond and shaken Martinis'.

Richard Hawkins, Manchester, England

Friends, when you have been robbed, it is digusting for anybody!
But we must remember who let the savages out of their cages!
And also who robbed first. We seemed to forget that the Europeans with US Marines backup ran sacked China!
Let's put things in perspective here! Because it's too late, Western societies are infested with Trojan Horses, it's the end of the Roman Civilisation.

Apaki, Wisconcin, US

Well it was us the US who sold them presidential Jetliners that were bugged, shall we have selective memory? it's a dog eat dog world of spionage and you can bet the Germans as well as any western power is deeply interested in China's economic and military secrets.

asteroid, asteroid, asteroid

We will regret all of our feckless disregard of Chinese spying when the war comes and our vaunted military is destroyed by the stolen technology that China throws against us.

Like Lenin supposedly said: we'll hang the capitalists, and they'll sell us the rope to do it with,

hugh brennan, Hillsborough, nj/usa

It is ridiculous that there are rumors and wrong allegation before every important state visit to China. Their purpose is obvious that some politicians just want to use China as their poltical bullets to target their opponent.
Forget about all those fussy rumors, mind your business and China won't do harm to anyone in the world. China is now concentrating on solving problems in their own soil and has no intersterest in other countries.

Jean Evans, Beijing, P. R. China

It is well known by the CIA, Canada and other countries' anti-espionage groups that China is the number one spy threat. I would guess that, while trying to counter the attacks, contries are also trying to keep it under wraps so as to not disrupt trade. Money is the motivator.

Noah Magnuson, Klamath Falls, USA/Oregon

Our experience in California shows that the Chinese have no cultural concept of ethics - whether in intellectual property of education.

To Chinese anywhere in the world "China" is eternal and it is to this concept that they are loyal: thus anything they can steal from anyone else is a success without a downside. What we call cheating in everyday life they consider clever.

The amazing thing is some people are still surprised at their behavior.

They must have great respect for the Germans to cheat so heavily against them.

Nick Pulskamp, Pasadena, California/USA

friendlywindows.com would be an excellent buy for a nation like China to sell it's computers, cell phones and other sorts of electronic software, on a global scale. FRIENDLYWINDOWS is a name that would quickly aquire worldwide name recognition. Since the Americans don't seem to have any interest in buying friendlywindows.com China or a European corporation could buy it.

Vincent Ruane, New york, Ireland