
Chinese Hacker Behind Google Attack Found - jolie
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/chinese_hacker_behind_google_attack_found.php
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rbanffy
> Does this news signal the beginning of a new East v. West cold war?

Cool! Moon rockets, faster computers, government funding for weird projects...
Fun toys come out of cold wars ;-)

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garply
What? I can't believe that this question was asked in seriousness.

Edit: I've given a lot of thought to the notion of war between the US and
China. I think it has a non-trivial possibility of occurring. But not in the
near future, and not over such an insignificant event. My conclusions are
that, should such a war occur, it would be sparked by the Chinese mainland
taking Taiwan by force very quickly and that it wouldn't happen until China
felt it was on a near level with the US economically (something that is still
quite far away).

I just feel like the US news has taken a really anti-Chinese turn over the
past year or two. I suspect that it has to do with the poor American economic
situation and a desire for a common enemy.

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philwelch
A shooting war will never happen between the US and China. Both countries have
nuclear weapons. Almost as bad, both countries have the ability to
unilaterally bankrupt the other--China through fire-selling their stash of US
dollars and the US through cutting off imports from China. The problem is that
either step on its own would be mutually disastrous. If China floods the
market with cheap US dollars, the RMB (which is pegged to the USD) crashes
too. If the US cuts off Chinese imports, our cost of living soars even before
taking into account the hyperinflation China could cause for us.

Taiwan and China will reunify, but they will reunify peaceably. It will follow
largely the example of Hong Kong.

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btilly
I don't see the reunification happening in the next few decades. Taiwan is a
democracy these days, and the public mood there is _very_ strongly against
reunification. Unlike with Hong Kong there is no third party in charge that
the negotiation can happen with.

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philwelch
If the Taiwanese are so against unification, why do they keep voting for the
Kuomintang--which is the party that has been negotiating with the Communists
for reunification?

Taiwan can remain a democracy under the PRC. The real question is whether the
rest of China will become democratic as well. I imagine that's the real reason
the KMT wants reunification--not so the communists can have power over Taiwan,
but so the KMT can have power over the mainland.

~~~
btilly
Nothing is quite so cut and dry as all that. The KMT is willing to negotiate
for reunification, but on such terms that it is pretty surely not going to
happen.

This is a fit with Taiwanese attitudes as revealed in polls. Which is
overwhelmingly to maintain the status quo. However if forced to pick between
independence and reunification, independence is preferred by something like a
2 to 1 margin. But Taiwan is painfully aware of what a declaration of the
risks that a declaration of independence would bring, hence the desire to
maintain the current status of having independence in substance only.

Incidentally your comment about Taiwan remaining a democracy under PRC looks
like a nod to Taiwan remainING a democracy under PRC control with an
arrangement similar to Hong Kong and Macau. If so then you should note that in
a 2005 poll nearly 80% of the country is opposed to that idea.

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philwelch
Nothing a good 50-100 years of mainland reforms won't fix, though. Ancient
civilizations can and do think and plan in the long term.

In principle, it's already agreed that there is but one China. It's also
understood that any military action by the mainland towards Taiwan will result
in some number of American aircraft carriers showing up. The rest is a matter
of time.

------
hendler
Two interesting notes:

Looks like it was IE6 exploits : "the code [...] exploited a security loophole
in IE6".

And title is very misleading. A hacker was found who wrote some code used by
the Hackers "He didn't launch the attacks himself, and the U.S. cybersecurity
team that tracked him down said that he didn't want his work to be used for
attacks of this nature and magnitude."

