We’ve been sustaining Chinese cyber attacks on our companies for years, and more recently our government institutions. They have been traced back to the People’s Liberation Army.
U.S. government and businesses alike need to go back to when the attacks began, and account for the cost of the damage, and the potential future losses of intellectual knowledge stolen by Chinese government and Chinese businesses. Once we have a total, we begin keeping a running total of these costs to us, and we simply deduct them from the debt we owe China. I’d just as soon China no longer loan our government money since they can’t be trusted to use it responsibly or efficiently.
They don’t like it? Tough. Come and get it from us. Further, I don’t think any Chinese firm or conglomerates should be able to own property in the United States.
Yes, we’ll pay more for consumer products, but maybe that will encourage many companies that have outsourced their production to China to come back to the United States? Maybe I’m naïve, but there has to be some merit in this idea. Why should we bear the brunt of these costs? Maybe the government can quit taxing us to death with the cost savings we’ll realize from the debt service reductions.
This article appears in May 23-30, 2013.
