Just to back up your point of "most countries have", the report in [1] provides an interesting read. It also shows America previously performing industrial espi

Just to back up your point of "most countries have", the report in [1] provides an interesting read. It also shows America previously performing industrial espionage as well, targeting both government and civilian targets, and commonly passing valuable information along to domestic companies. China's just doing it all far more loudly and explicitly. Brief Examples from European Parliament's "Report on existence of ECHELON"[1]: NSA vs Airbus: Intercepted orders and contracts for aircraft between Airbus and the Saudi Arabian national airline. Also exposed bribes paid by the European Airbus Consortium American. American company (McDonnel-Douglas) won $6bn contract after exposing bribery and competing against deals. NSA intercepted details of Enercon's gear-less wind generator technology to a US firm which may have allowed them to patent the invention in America before Enercon NSA/CIA vs Thomson-Alcatel: Bribery exposed for winning Brazillian contract (US $1.4bn), Clinton pressures Brazillian govt to awarding the contract to the US firm Raytheon CIA hacked into computer system of the Japanese Trade Ministry to assist in negotiations on import quotas for US cars on the Japanese market [1]: http://cryptome.org/echelon-ep-fin.htm#10 http://cryptome.org/echelon-ep-fin.htm#10 (Ctrl+F "Published cases") [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON#Controversy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON#Controversy (good overview)