US cybersnooping

Last week, the United States' Justice Department indicted five individuals who are members of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. It claims they hacked into the computers of US companies to obtain trade secrets for the benefit of Chinese State-owned enterprises. China has refuted these charges.

According to a signed article in the Malaysian newspaper The Star, by accusing China of spying on specific US companies for the commercial benefit of Chinese enterprises, the US is trying to draw a very fine line.

The line the US is attempting to draw is between spying to benefit particular companies, which it regards as illegitimate, and spying to benefit the economy, which it seems to regard as legitimate.