As someone who regularly critiques New York Times articles, I feel it is only fair to also give credit where it’s due. The Times deserves kudos for publishing an expose on the vast wealth accumulated by Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and his relatives–an article that has resulted, the newspaper revealed this morning, in four months of sophisticated attacks on its computer network by Chinese hackers.
There is nothing at all surprising about the Chinese cyber-harassment in response to criticism. This has long been a trademark of the Beijing regime, which typically operates through hackers that provide a layer of deniability to Chinese officials. Indeed last year Bloomberg was similarly targeted after running an article revealing the riches accumulated by Xi Jinping, then China’s vice president at the time.
The Times, therefore, must have published its well-reported article on Wen Jiabao with its eyes wide open as to the likely consequences. The fact that it went ahead anyway, and did not cave before China’s implicit and explicit threats of retaliation, is a credit to the company, and a sign of the good that a large media organization can do.
Online-only journals and blogs are great–hey, I’m a blogger too–but it takes a lot of resources to produce journalism like this and then deal with the blowback. If giant media corporations like the New York Times Company are unable to operate at a profit in the future, the consequence will be a serious loss of information which will negatively impact even those of us who often disagree with the Times‘s editorial line.
I wouldn't cry if the NY Times went bankrupt. I would cheer and celebrate a victory. But why does the USA not pursue China for their obscene hackers and many other obscenities? In totalitarian China, it is a lie to declare that these hackers are 'independent' of the government. I am afraid that there are too many companies, corporations, and individuals in the US who benefit financially from the cheap labor in China. I benefit from the lower price goods produced in China. But the immediate financial benefit is offset by the long term consequences of supporting the belligerent government of China. Sorry, Kissinger/Nixon, you goofed on that one.
I could have sworn I read a similar expose in The Wall Street Journal a few months back in connection with its coverage of the murder of the British "diplomat/spy".