The brouhaha over Chinese hacking US computers for commercial gain exposes Americans to charges of monumental hypocrisy. Are Americans and their allies supposed to believe that when the US National Security Agency hacks computers, it does so for the greater good and when Chinese hack them, it is inherently for evil purposes?

It's nice to be assured by the United States administration that when it hacks, its heart is pure and it would never hack for commercial gain. The criminal hacking charge that the US has filed against specific foreign officers is largely a political drama to demonstrate that it is ever vigilant to spying and blunt to any criticisms that it is weak on industrial espionage. Washington has established the ground rules for hacking, namely military hacking is okay but hacking for commercial gain is forbidden.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney's statement that "we don't gather intelligence for the benefit of US companies" defies credulity. Such statements do little to assuage the growing anger against NSA activities such as spying on Petrogas, Brazil's offshore oil reserves and other trade secrets, Huawei, the giant Chinese company that makes Internet switching equipment, and Pacnet, the Hong Kong-based operator of undersea fiber optic cables.

TEJINDER UBEROI, via e-mail

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