China is sharply stepping up espionage against the United States as the rising Asian power grows more sophisticated in cyber warfare and spy recruitment, a report to Congress warned Thursday.
"China is changing the way that espionage is being done," said Carolyn Bartholomew, the chair of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
In its wide-ranging annual report to Congress, the commission also recommended a tougher US approach on trade, renewing accusations that Beijing was manipulating its currency's value.
The commission reported a steep rise in cyber attacks from China aiming to disrupt or infiltrate websites of the US government or perceived rivals of Beijing such as Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Colonel Gary McAlum, a senior US military officer, told the commission that the US Defense Department detected 54,640 malicious cyber incidents in 2008, a 20 percent rise from a year earlier. The figure is on track to jump another 60 percent this year.
While the attacks came from around the world, the commission said China was the largest culprit. Some Chinese "patriotic hackers" may not receive official support, but the report said that the government likely planned to deploy them in a conflict to disrupt a foreign adversary's computers.
The commission found that China was the most aggressive nation in spying on the United States and was trying to recruit more Americans as spies.
The report said that while China historically tried to tap Chinese-Americans -- believing, often incorrectly, that they would be sympathetic -- it was now turning to the Soviet model of seeking to bribe informants with cash and gifts.
It said that the Chinese were also expanding "false flag" operations, in which sources are deceived into thinking they are providing information elsewhere.
It pointed to the case of Tai Shen Kuo, a furniture salesman in New Orleans arrested last year after persuading two retired US military officials to give sensitive information by telling them it was headed to Taiwan, not mainland China.
