Former US secretary of state and potential Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton accused China on Saturday of stealing commercial secrets and “huge amounts of government information,” and of trying to “hack into everything that doesn’t move in America.”
Clinton’s language on China appeared to be far stronger than that usually used by US President Barack Obama’s administration.
Speaking at a campaign event in New Hampshire, Clinton said she wanted to see China’s peaceful rise.
“But we also have to be fully vigilant, China’s military is growing very quickly, they’re establishing military installations that again threaten countries we have treaties with, like the Philippines, because they are building on contested property,” Clinton said. “They’re also trying to hack into everything that doesn’t move in America. Stealing commercial secrets ... from defense contractors, stealing huge amounts of government information, all looking for an advantage.”
Clinton is the front-runner to win the Democratic nomination for the US presidential election in November next year.
Asked about the remarks, a White House official declined to comment.
In the most recent case involving suspicions of Chinese hacking, Obama administration officials have said China is the top suspect in the massive hacking of a US government agency that compromised the personnel records of at least 4.2 million current and former government workers.
China has denied hacking into the computers of the US Office of Personnel Management.
Clinton also addressed the current talks over Iran’s nuclear program and had strong words for Tehran.
Even if a deal is reached with Iran, Tehran’s “aggressiveness will not end” and it will remain a principal state sponsor of terrorism, she said.
Clinton said she hoped that “a strong verifiable deal” would be reached at talks in Vienna between world powers and Iran.
“[Even with an agreement] they will continue to be the principal state sponsor of terrorism. They will continue to destabilize governments in the region and beyond. They will continue to use their proxies like Hezbollah and they will continue to be an existential threat to Israel,” she said.
The US, other world powers and Iran have set a deadline for tomorrow to reach a deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy, she said.
The US has to be “much smarter” about how it deals with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s territorial ambitions, she said at the event.
Putin’s moves to expand Russia’s boundaries, such as the annexation of Crimea last year, pose a challenge for the US, but she touted her experience as the countries top diplomat.
She said that because of NATO members’ agreement to protect fellow members, had Ukraine been a member of NATO when Crimea was annexed, “that would have caused us to have to respond.”
“I’ve dealt with him. I know him. He’s not an easy man ... but I don’t think there is any substitute other than constant engagement,” she said of Putin.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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