Unit 61398 of the People’s Liberation Army. That lugubrious name sounds the part, either for a Bond film, or for the indictment against it which US prosecutors unsealed this week. The US has thus, for the first time, directly accused the Chinese military of stealing trade secrets from its companies, including US Steel, Westinghouse and Alcoa.
The indicted PLA officers’ aliases have less gravitas. “WinXYHappy” and “KandyGoo” look a bit silly on the FBI Cyber Most Wanted list. More importantly, consider how Unit 61398’s specialised services were typically employed. According to the indictment, hackers were directly hired out by Chinese state-owned enterprises to assist them against their US competitors.
And that, in short, is a great argument for SOE reform if ever there was one. The US prosecutors do not name particular SOEs in their claims. But the sectors involved tell their own story – steelmaking; solar panels; aluminium. These have all been grossly oversupplied by China for years. The consequences have been horrendous for the health of the financial system (given the bad credit that has piled up) and the environment – to say nothing of destroying value for the SOEs’ principal owner.