Tensions are growing amid claims and counter-claims of cyber espionage by the United States and China. Even the just concluded Sino-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing couldn't ease the tensions.

In May, the US charged, albeit without evidence, five Chinese nationals with breaking into US companies' systems and stealing trade secrets, and called them "military hackers". On July 11, US Department of Justice officers arrested a Chinese national, Su Bin, for "working with hackers in China" to infiltrate US companies' networks and steal valuable data on military technology. Su is the owner of Chinese aviation technology company Lode Tech and has been accused of working with two co-conspirators in China to break into the computers of Boeing and other US defense contractors.

Raising tensions further, Fox News' Bob Beckel, who hosts The Five program, said: "Chinese are the single biggest threat to the national security of the US. Do you know what we just did? As usual, we bring them over here and teach a bunch of Chinamen, uh, Chinese people, how to do computers, and then they go back to China and hack us."