Former US secretary of state and potential Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton accused China on Saturday of stealing commercial secrets and “huge amounts of government information,” and of trying to “hack into everything that doesn’t move in America.”
Clinton’s language on China appeared to be far stronger than that usually used by US President Barack Obama’s administration.
Speaking at a campaign event in New Hampshire, Clinton said she wanted to see China’s peaceful rise.
“But we also have to be fully vigilant, China’s military is growing very quickly, they’re establishing military installations that again threaten countries we have treaties with, like the Philippines, because they are building on contested property,” Clinton said. “They’re also trying to hack into everything that doesn’t move in America. Stealing commercial secrets ... from defense contractors, stealing huge amounts of government information, all looking for an advantage.”
Clinton is the front-runner to win the Democratic nomination for the US presidential election in November next year.
Asked about the remarks, a White House official declined to comment.
In the most recent case involving suspicions of Chinese hacking, Obama administration officials have said China is the top suspect in the massive hacking of a US government agency that compromised the personnel records of at least 4.2 million current and former government workers.
China has denied hacking into the computers of the US Office of Personnel Management.
Clinton also addressed the current talks over Iran’s nuclear program and had strong words for Tehran.
Even if a deal is reached with Iran, Tehran’s “aggressiveness will not end” and it will remain a principal state sponsor of terrorism, she said.
Clinton said she hoped that “a strong verifiable deal” would be reached at talks in Vienna between world powers and Iran.
“[Even with an agreement] they will continue to be the principal state sponsor of terrorism. They will continue to destabilize governments in the region and beyond. They will continue to use their proxies like Hezbollah and they will continue to be an existential threat to Israel,” she said.
The US, other world powers and Iran have set a deadline for tomorrow to reach a deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy, she said.
The US has to be “much smarter” about how it deals with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s territorial ambitions, she said at the event.
Putin’s moves to expand Russia’s boundaries, such as the annexation of Crimea last year, pose a challenge for the US, but she touted her experience as the countries top diplomat.
She said that because of NATO members’ agreement to protect fellow members, had Ukraine been a member of NATO when Crimea was annexed, “that would have caused us to have to respond.”
“I’ve dealt with him. I know him. He’s not an easy man ... but I don’t think there is any substitute other than constant engagement,” she said of Putin.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
MIXED SOURCING: While Taiwan is expanding domestic production, it also sources munitions overseas, as some, like M855 rounds, are cheaper than locally made ones Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells, as the munition is in high demand due to the Ukraine-Russia war and should be useful in Taiwan’s self-defense, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers in Taipei yesterday. Lin was responding to questions about Taiwan’s partnership with allies in producing munitions at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Given the intense demand for 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and in light of Taiwan’s own defensive needs, Taipei and Washington plan to jointly produce 155mm shells, said Lin,
RSS