Chinese Hacking: Impact on Human Rights and Commercial Rule of Law

Today's hearing will focus on the aspects of cyber that fall within the Commission's mandate, notably the impact on the rule of law and on human rights. Recent headlines have revived the debate over the appropriate balance between security and freedom, but we cannot overlook the enormous impact that cyber attacks from China have had, and continue to have, on American jobs and American companies. They seriously call into question the Chinese commitment to the rule of law. The Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property estimates that China accounts for 50 to 80 percent of the IP theft in the United States and around the globe. It found that IP theft, including from China, costs the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars a year and literally millions of jobs, dragging down our GDP and undermining our ability to innovate and to prosper. With a growing prevalence of computer networks in America's heavily wired economy, cyber attacks represent an increasingly growing threat alongside more traditional forms of intellectual property theft. China simply does not play by the same rules as we do. The Chinese Government denies these attacks, even though there is mounting evidence of Chinese state involvement.