Look at the date on the email from "Tom Intl," the date in the Reuters account of the other Chinese hack jobs. Why last Thursday? To allow one day of news coverage before June 4.
The Chinese did this just to show that they could. It was not the full exercise of power; in my case they just decided to change the language of my gmail account, they could have deleted the whole account. They just wanted to let me know that they had gained access to the account.
Symbolism, in this instance symbolic actions, are used to a greater extent by Chinese than, say, Americans. And Americans, like say me, often miss the signals. In October, 1970 the Nixon administration's flirtation with the PRC was well along. All communication between the two countries was done through intermediaries, that is indirectly. At a celebration of the founding of the PRC Mao Zedong had Edgar Snow stand next to him on the reviewing stand. Snow was a fellow-traveler and author of Red Star Over China. He was also an American. Mao had Snow up on the reviewing stand as an unambiguous signal to Washington that he welcomed its advances. But because Snow was a fellow-traveler he had no credibility in Washington and the Americans completely missed the intended symbolism.
Last Thursday's hacking was a symbol. I missed it, I didn't even think about June 4 until I read something in the news yesterday, Google missed it, the other account holders missed it. We can't miss things like this. China has been at war with Google for over a year. A real exercise of its power is coming.
The Chinese did this just to show that they could. It was not the full exercise of power; in my case they just decided to change the language of my gmail account, they could have deleted the whole account. They just wanted to let me know that they had gained access to the account.
Symbolism, in this instance symbolic actions, are used to a greater extent by Chinese than, say, Americans. And Americans, like say me, often miss the signals. In October, 1970 the Nixon administration's flirtation with the PRC was well along. All communication between the two countries was done through intermediaries, that is indirectly. At a celebration of the founding of the PRC Mao Zedong had Edgar Snow stand next to him on the reviewing stand. Snow was a fellow-traveler and author of Red Star Over China. He was also an American. Mao had Snow up on the reviewing stand as an unambiguous signal to Washington that he welcomed its advances. But because Snow was a fellow-traveler he had no credibility in Washington and the Americans completely missed the intended symbolism.
Last Thursday's hacking was a symbol. I missed it, I didn't even think about June 4 until I read something in the news yesterday, Google missed it, the other account holders missed it. We can't miss things like this. China has been at war with Google for over a year. A real exercise of its power is coming.
