No. Next Question?

The editors of the Washington Post wonder whether China is serious about ending its cyber-attacks against U. S. businesses and governments:

PRESIDENT XI Jinping of China has been assertive since coming to power in 2013. Although China is governed in opaque ways, and he faces entrenched and competing interests, Mr. Xi has attempted to appear as a leader who is decisive and setting China’s direction. It is fair to assume that when Mr. Xi wants to get something done in the realm of the Chinese state and party, he can get results.

Mr. Xi promised in his Sept. 25 news conference with President Obama at the White House not to wage cyberwar on the United States for valuable commercial secrets and intellectual property. He declared : “Cybertheft of commercial secrets and hacking attacks against government networks are both illegal; such acts are criminal offenses and should be punished.”

Mr. Obama quite rightly asked whether words would be followed by actions. So far, it appears not.

The answer, very obviously, is that the Chinese cannot be trusted as long as they gain a competitive advantage for their actions and pay no price for their actions. As I’ve suggested before I think we should shut China’s Internet connections down for a day (it’s well within our power) to give them the general idea.

If that’s too crude and direct for you we might try issuing letters of marque and offering bounties for shutting down Chinese networks. There’s nothing like a financial incentive to gain Americans’ interest.