Hcss report

Negative economic events, 
associated mainly with 
resources
and the 
cyber 
domain
, are only identified in recent years. Authors tend to recall that China is 
conducting an aggressive search to breach public and private computer systems, and 
the “theft of confidential business information and proprietary technologies through 
cyber intrusions”.
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Yet economic disputes in which Chinese assertiveness is clearly 
manifested concern resources, especially in its neighborhood.
63
Almost logically, they 
seem related to maritime, territorial disputes, touching upon one of China’s most 
crucial interests – its sovereignty and its will to defend it at all costs. Resource or sea 
denials are regularly identified in
 recent years
. For example in 2009, with the 
“imposition of unilateral fishing bans in the South China Sea”;
64
in September 2010, 
with an embargo blocking exports of rare-earth minerals to Japan (after an incident in 
which Japan arrested the captain of a trawler who collided with a Japanese patrol boat 
near the Senkaku islands 
65
).
Still, factual examples of 
positive or neutral economic assertiveness
were more 
frequent. Our results show that over time, China has 
increasingly
shown positive 
signs in its attitude towards the rest of the world regarding economic 
cooperation
: 
the agreement to increase direct trade and transportation between China and Taiwan 
in November 2008,
66
with the US-China bilateral forum for Strategic and Economic 

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HCSS REPORT
35
Dialogue in April 2009.
67
In addition, the revision of the Foreign Trade Law was 
implemented in 2004 to comply with the commitment to the World Trade Organization, 
and expand China’s economic opening to the rest of the world.
68
However, we note 
that Sino-African relations and the economic involvement of China in Africa are