Accuse, evict, repeat: How it has become a commonly used tactic by US

The technique of accusing, condemning, evicting has been used by the United States before. And, so far, there is scant evidence that it has limited the cyber attacks and other bad behaviour from America's two greatest rivals - China and Russia- for influence and power around the world.

Officers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army were indicted in 2014 for an extensive effort to bore inside American companies.

The result was an impressive "Wanted" poster by the FBI, but six years later none of them were apprehended to stand trial in the US on charges of looting some of America's biggest companies.
 

Two years ago, 12 Russian intelligence operatives were indicted by Mr Robert Mueller, the special counsel who investigated both Moscow and President Donald Trump.

They have also evaded trial. The President closed two Russian diplomatic facilities that the US said were dens of spies operating under diplomatic cover, and ordered more evictions.

Yet the hacking and the disinformation operations have proceeded unabated, and by some measures have accelerated.

US grid regulator NERC issued a warning that a major hacking group with suspected Russian ties was conducting reconnaissance into the networks of electrical utilities.

When General Paul M. Nakasone took over at the director of the NSA and the commander of US Cyber Command, the NSA shut down the Internet Research Agency in St Petersburg for a few days around the 2018 mid-terms on suspicion that Russian hackers were stealing data to sabotage North Korean and Iranian missiles. 

Warnings were sent to Russian intelligence officers of conducting a ''crippling strike'' after the discovery was made.

 

The US government accused two hackers in China of targeting US firms involved in coronavirus research, in a wide-ranging indictment that alleged the pair also stole hundreds of millions of dollars in sensitive information from companies around the world while working on behalf of Beijing’s premier spy service.

The US justice department has charged them for trade secret theft and wire fraud conspiracy.