US official accuses China of ‘industrial cyber spying’ amid looming trade war
Gilbert Kaplan, an international trade undersecretary at the US Commerce Department, told a conference that China is ‘engaging in commercial cyber espionage’, but offered no details
A senior US official has accused China of engaging in commercial espionage and implementing non-market practices, causing the bilateral trade relationship to become “imbalanced and unsustainable” amid an approaching US-China trade war.
Gilbert Kaplan, an undersecretary for international trade at the US Commerce Department, said at a China Institute event in New York on Thursday that China is “stealing American intellectual property and engaging in commercial cyber espionage”. Kaplan provided no details to support his statement.
The undersecretary also criticised China’s continuing embrace of industrial policies and trade practices that are directed by governmental intervention and central planning, rather than market demands.
His harsh critique included China’s non-market policies, including the government's subsidising of top priority industries, and non-market oriented state-owned enterprises acting in support of the government’s interests.
Kaplan said he opposed defending China’s non-market trade and industrial policies. The US “disagrees” with China’s defenders’ acquiescing to treat the world’s second largest country as both a market economy and a developing country at the same time.