ABSTRACT
China and its acolyte state North Korea use cyberattack and hacking, mainly on the state level, for a wide variety of purposes. The major use is to steal intellectual property to keep up with advances in technology in the US, UK and other Western-allied countries with advanced technology such as Israel. A major part of the punitive tariffs the US is placing on China is to force them to sign agreements to stop the above practices that are so damaging to US businesses due to loss of IP and trade secrets. The US wishes to continue to do business with China but without such punitive losses to its industry – high technology in particular. A spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Geng Shuang, even denied any knowledge of the Marriott cyberattack stating: ‘China opposes all forms of cyberattack and cracks down on it in accordance with the law.’.
