<p><pre><code> The error on Obama's part was to emphasize hacking, rather
than IP theft. On the accusation of government hacking to
steal trade secrets, the US does have the moral high
ground.
</code></pre>
That's purely speculative.<p>(1) We have no proof that the NSA is not also involved in IP theft, because our surveillance programs have no transparency and no third-party oversight. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?<p>(2) Perhaps there is no IP theft, only accusations of such. Or perhaps the IP theft by China are simply isolated incidents instead of some common phenomenon. Maybe the US has been hacking these American companies via Chinese IP addresses so that they can (a) hide what they are doing; (b) point the finger at China; (c) gain public support for "militarization" of the Internet, etc.<p>If we now look as bad as China does, that is our own fault. We should have taken the moral high ground and abstained from lowering ourselves to blanket surveillance of all our citizens.<p>The egg on our face is of our own doing.