As President Obama prepares to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the two nations are at odds over cyberspying, cybertheft, and cyberweapons. For the US, which is tied to China economically and strategically (against N Korea), the systematic Chinese theft of intellectual property and military technology via hacking by PLA Unit 61398 is a worrisome topic. China, of course, will cite the US and Israeli cyberweapon attacks on Iran's nuclear program and the US sat spying on China's advanced weapons facilities. It is unclear just how the upcoming "talks" will improve relations as China no longer can sustain 8-10% growth with raw manpower alone. In this techno-Age, it is much easier just to steal other nation's work and save decades of old-fashioned R&D. China's carrier and stealth fighter both benefitted from stolen US military secrets and cyberespionage is key to China maintaining its rapid growth rate in the civilian sector with industrialization. So the talks might just end-up as cheap talk and not cooperation of any kind... except possibly some added pressure by China on Kim Jong Un (maybe)...

* intellectual property