XI SHOWDOWN

THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY GOT wind of the attack almost immediately. A massive cyber hack was underway last month into Microsoft’s Exchange email server, and within hours the NSA had determined where the assault had originated: the People’s Republic of China. The PRC had over the years repeatedly forsworn any intention to hack into U.S. corporate computer systems and steal intellectual property. President Xi Jinping, in fact, had given Barack Obama his word, in September 2015, that China would not engage in commercial cyber espionage.

That had been a lie, and now the Biden White House was fed up. While refraining, for the moment, to impose new sanctions against Beijing, it immediately contacted key allies, led by Japan, and asked them to join Washington in issuing a formal joint complaint to Beijing, which they did in late July.

This marked a difference from the aggressively unilateral approach on trade that the Trump administration took, and was the first significant demonstration that the Biden administration meant it when it said it would work closely with allies to respond to China’s economic predations.

In government offices in Tokyo and in European capitals, the change was welcome. “Now, on cyber security, in an exclusive interview during the Tokyo Olympics. “This is going to be a public-private effort. And in that, we’ll be working closely with the United States.”