Are We At War With China?

Today comes the news that the federal government personnel files have been hacked, and (once again) it looks as though the Chinese government is responsible.  The group nicknamed 'Deep Panda', also thought responsible for the hacking of health insurer Anthem Blue Cross, has accessed 4.1 million current and former federal employees.  They took personnel information including names, addresses, pay grades, pension and health insurance data.  It's not clear if the breach included Social Security numbers

This isn't even the first time Chinese hackers have targeted the Office of Personnel Management.  In March, 2014, they nabbed the names of people who had applied for top secret security clearances.

OPM says they fend off 2.5 billion hack attempts each month.  Most, obviously are thwarted.  But when you have the resources of the Chinese government behind you, you're facing the best computer geeks on the planet.

What are the Chinese up to?  We've seen other provocative moves by the Chinese lately, including the construction and occupation of artificial islands to be used as military bases in the South China Sea.  China is ramping up its military spending is growing at a 10-12% rate per annum.  That's in contrast to the United State's virtually flat budget, although that may soon change. 

Since China's revenue comes primarily from exporting around the world, kind of make you wonder why we keep buying their stuff.  Every dollar we send to China is another dollar available for their intelligence and military budgets.

We really do seem to be in a conflict with the Chinese, whether we realize it or not.