Spying on the US is a service to China, state-run media said on Wednesday, singing the praises of a man who confessed to hacking US defense contractors on Beijing’s behalf.
Chinese national Su Bin (蘇斌), 50, pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets from the companies, including plans for transport planes and fighter jets.
In a plea agreement filed on Wednesday, he admitted to conspiring with two unnamed people in China to try to acquire plans for F-22 and F-35 jets and C-17 transport aircraft.
US airplane manufacturer Boeing was among the companies hacked.
If he had done so, “we are willing to show our gratitude and respect for his service to our country,” said an editorial in the Global Times, a newspaper with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
“On the secret battlefield without gunpowder, China needs special agents to gather secrets from the US,” it added.
It also questioned whether the plea agreement reflected the truth of the matter, saying that while the US has arrested “quite a few ‘Chinese spies’ ... most of them proved to be innocent.”
“As the ‘war of information’ between China and the US continues, there will probably be more Chinese framed as spies,” the newspaper said.
Washington and Beijing have repeatedly clashed over what the US describes as rampant cyberspying by the Chinese government on US industry.
Last year, the US indicted five Chinese military officers on charges of cyberespionage.
In the 1990s, Taiwanese-
American Lee Wen-ho (李文和) was accused of spying for the Chinese government, but eventually pleaded guilty to only one minor charge in an embarrassing debacle that ended in an apology from then-US president Bill Clinton.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
French singer Kendji Girac, who was seriously injured by a gunshot this week, wanted to “fake” his suicide to scare his partner who was threatening to leave him, prosecutors said on Thursday. The 27-year-old former winner of France’s version of The Voice was found wounded after police were called to a traveler camp in Biscarrosse on France’s southwestern coast. Girac told first responders he had accidentally shot himself while tinkering with a Colt .45 automatic pistol he had bought at a junk shop, a source said. On Thursday, regional prosecutor Olivier Janson said, citing the singer, that he wanted to “fake” his suicide
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other