It is an interesting fact that China has been hacking into US systems since the 1980s and that Clinton is the first Secretary of State to have made any form of complaint about the practice. Meanwhile, the US put out a policy document back in 2001 that essentially said 'we will bury you in cyberspace'. Until very recently it was by no means certain what the international response should be to cyber espionage. Espionage is not warfare, not is it necessarily damaging to the interests of a country to be spied on. Reliable exchange of information can lead to stability. The US does not have grounds to take offense for a practice that it had previously tolerated for 30 years without complaint. Still less does the IETF. As to why the IETF is visiting. I would suggest that it is because the Chinese government has extended an invitation. The PRC has expressed concern about the 'dominance' of certain states over information infrastructures on numerous occasions, including in international treaties. Hosting a meeting is an affirmative step that the PRC can take to encourage greater participation. On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 5:39 PM, Dean Willis <dean.willis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Greg Daley wrote: > >> I would actually not encourage IETF to work on such a technology as this, >> particularly in the lead-up to IETF Beijing. That would be a serious affront >> to our hosts. It is quite important to ensure that the IETF particularly is not >> subject to any external party's agenda in the lead-up to the meeting. > > How about being subject to an internal agenda, like making the Internet > available to people who are suffering under repressive regimes? > > Obligatoy protest: And given the Google debacle, why are we still going > to Beijing? > > -- > Dean > _______________________________________________ > Ietf mailing list > Ietf@xxxxxxxx > https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf > -- -- New Website: http://hallambaker.com/ View Quantum of Stupid podcasts, Tuesday and Thursday each week, http://quantumofstupid.com/ _______________________________________________ Ietf mailing list Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf