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Front for protectionism

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-21 07:44

Some Western countries cite spy networks to blemish China's image but their real intention is to implement trade protectionism, says an article in the Guangzhou Daily. Following is an excerpt:

Countries in the West have recently been tarnishing China's image to set up trade barriers.

Canadian researchers at the Munk Centre for International Studies in the University of Toronto claimed on March 29 that they had found a large-scale spy network based on the Chinese mainland.

A Chinese "cyber-attack" will be powerful enough to "paralyze" the UK, news in the region recently reported. On April 8, The Wall Street Journal also reported that a Chinese spy network has already infiltrated the US power grid, threatening its infrastructure.

The world is experiencing an unprecedented financial crisis and the growing importance of China in the international community has focused attention on the country. Some Western countries holding the flag of a "free market" are now carrying out latent trade protectionism.

We can see such protectionism as the root cause behind the Chinese spy network myth.

This type of trade barrier is itself well concealed. The US had used a similar excuse to interfere in the purchase of Chinese Lenovo computers by the White House and other US government departments. After UK intelligence agencies suspected Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei of hiding behind and controlling the UK information network, some English politicians called on domestic companies to substitute the Chinese firm's operations. Earlier on, the Australian press reported that Huawei, as a bidder for its national broadband network project, could bring in Chinese spies. These accusations are partly due to the prejudice held against the country and the effects of a widespread "China Threat" fallacy.

At the G20 summit in London earlier this month, participants reached a common understanding to fight trade protectionism amid the financial crisis. It will not contribute to the revival of the world economy and instead affect their self-interests if these Western countries try to tarnish China's image for the sake of pushing forward trade protectionism.

(China Daily 04/21/2009 page8)