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China-US Spying, Killing Terrorists In Dubai, And Computer Hacking. Like It's A Big Deal.

By Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson

I was not going to write about it, but based on my three email rule, I am. My rule says if three people email me on a topic, I write about it, especially if the emails begins with something along the lines of "I'm surprised you've remained silent on...." So I am writing about the recent spate of media reports on China spying and hacking and just for good measure, I might as well throw in the taking out of a terrorist in Dubai. Here is my position on all of that. 1. None of it is really new. 2. Are you really surprised? Seriously. How many people out there do not believe that China, the United States, Russia, France, Japan, Germany, Israel, England, etc. tasked with constantly trying to figure out what other governments are doing, with constantly trying to figure out how best to protect their own country, and with constantly snooping into company information so as to better arm their own companies with information? 3. Governments have taken out (killed, captured, etc.) their enemies since the beginning of governments. That does not necessarily make it right, but it still should be discussed in that perspective. 4. One can certainly take the position that spying is or is not immoral, but there is something hypocritical in acting as though it is an horrible immoral thing when a country you do not like does it, while acting as though your own country is above the fray. Because not only do governments engage in spying, they also engage in propaganda when they are able to catch and publicize spying by others, and it does behoove us not to get all caught up in it as though it is a completely one-sided thing. We are just reading about .00001% of what goes on out there. 5. Take China and the US. It would probably boggle the mind how much money is spent and how many people each country devotes to spying on the other. So though it is interesting when one side or the other gets caught, it is not nearly as meaningful as it is usually made out to be. So I guess my position is that, yes, of course, it happens, and wouldn't it be great if we could all just get along? I am truly not trying to be facetious here, but at the same time, I just have a lot of trouble getting all into screaming mode. What do you think?

Full post as published by China Law Blog on February 19, 2010 (boomark / email).