US Reportedly Pulling Spies From China Following Cyberattacks

[Obama and Jinping] agreed not to conduct or knowingly support cyber theft of trade secrets or competitive business information.

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper does not believe China will comply with a new pact to stop state-sponsored cyberattacks on US businesses and trade secrets coming from the communist country.

The nation’s top intelligence official said Tuesday that he’s not optimistic that an agreement the USA recently struck with China will effectively deter cyber threats emanating from the communist nation.

Experts have said the OPM breach will have consequences for US national security because the stolen information includes sensitive data on current, prospective and former government employees as well as their friends and family.

The United States is reportedly pulling its spies from China after cyberattacks compromised the personal data of almost 22 million government workers.

On Tuesday, according to Washington Post, the Central Intelligence Agency started recalling officers from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing due to concerns that their identities have been exposed.

Even old-fashioned soldiers and weapons are in danger because “most of the weapons systems we have now were not built to withstand a concerted cyber threat”, said Deputy Secretary Of Defense Robert Work. Unnamed officials said that the CIA’s withdrawal was meant to protect its officers whose agency affiliation might put them at risk. “These threaten our economic competitiveness and national security”.

“The agreement looks to limit espionage only when it applies to economic realms, but that leaves out every juicy government target in both the United States and China”.

Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.). “But it seems to me they are not seeing a response right now from us, and therefore we’re going to continue to see bad behavior from the Chinese”.

Clapper said President Barack Obama has directed him to form a small center that will integrate cyberthreat intelligence from across federal agencies, as do centers established over the years for counterterrorism, counterproliferation and counterintelligence.

Clapper added that when discussing penalties, policymakers also must remember that the US conducts cyber spying, too.

Beijing has denied such activity.

Mr. Xi, during his first official visit to the US, reached the agreement with Mr. Obama amid reports the administration was considering imposing economic sanctions over the attacks.

Clapper explained his reason, saying that Chinese theft of American intellectual property is “pretty pervasive”, and “I think there’s a question about the extent to which the government actually orchestrates all of it or not”.

At a joint press conference announcing what the countries called a “common understanding”, both presidents stressed the need to work together to curb cyberattacks.

“Although we must be prepared for a large Armageddon-scale strike that would debilitate the entire USA infrastructure, that is not … the most likely scenario”, Clapper added.