US Tech Firms Bypassing Pentagon to Protect Deals with China, Strategist Says

Peter Singer was quoted in the Guardian about US-Chinese relations:

Peter Singer, an author and senior fellow at the New America Foundation thinktank, said the United States and China are engaged in a new cold war – being fought partly in cyberspace – that “could turn hot”.

Known tactics in this new cold war include Chinese cyber-spies stealing secrets relating to the US military’s F-35 stealth jet to build a clone warplane. Meanwhile, China has complained that the US takes advantage of its power to “unscrupulously monitor other countries” under the pretense of fighting terrorism.

China’s hi-tech military capabilities – including the world’s fastest supercomputer, a soon-to-launch “unhackable” quantum communications satellite, a hypersonic weapons programme and armed ground robotics – have left the United States trying to play catch-up, Singer explained during a talk at the RSA security conference in San Francisco.

“In the past the government led the way with innovation and industry followed,” said Singer, citing the Arpanet, a precursor to the internet, as an example. “Now it’s the private sector – as seen in the debate over encryption. This is changing the way that government leaders talk – the tone alternates between asking for help and threatening.”