Leading article: The salesman and the spies

There was a strange juxtaposition of events on Monday. That was the day Britain launched the fourth wing of its armed services: a ‘cyber-command’ designed to protect our country against online attacks, most of which are carried out by China. It was also the day when David Cameron welcomed Wen Jiabao, the Premier of China, to 10 Downing Street for smiles and handshakes and multi-million-pound deals. Something very odd is happening to Sino-British relations. Britain is simultaneously acquiring a new enemy and a new ally. If we are lucky, the proceeds from trade with the ally may exceed the £650 million cost of online combat with the enemy.

China’s problem is simple. Its economic growth is slowing (this, one supposes, is what happens when your workforce enters its adolescence). It specialises in making things, not designing things. It is attempting to fix this deficiency through a massive programme of industrial espionage. According to many British companies, if you start negotiations with a Chinese partner on a Monday, you can expect your computers to be under attack by the Thursday.

China has also started targeting British government departments. Our security services believe that it broke into the Foreign Office in January, and makes frequent attacks on the Treasury. The nature of cyber-espionage, of course, means that nothing can be proved: the information may go back to Beijing, but the nefarious software that extracts it can be run from anywhere in the world. One sophisticated attack was traced to an internet server in Brighton.

Why do we put up with this? Premier Wen gave us a clue this week. He said that China was ready to ‘invest’ in European debt. Our government needs to borrow £1 of every £5 it spends; it probably does not feel that it can afford to be rude to potential creditors, whatever their character.