china-taiwan and limits of state action

[dmolnar]

Recently a friend asked me what my opinion was as a "computer guy" about
the China-Taiwan "cyber warfare." At first it seemed that there wasn't
much to say, except maybe to point out that this seems to be a ways away
from Schwartau's info-war. 

One thing has started to bother me a bit, though. How does mainland China
distinguish an attack by the Taiwanese state from an attack launched by
private Taiwainese citizens? Do they even *care*, since they have such
poor relations with Taiwan anyway?

What happens if Taiwan's government says it wants to normalize relations
with China (and vice versa), but the attacks continue? Will they have to
find and punish their own citizens in order for the normalization to move 
forward? Where do treaty obligations compel a state to prosecute citizens
for behavior which it may have tacitly encouraged before?

Interestingly enough, an attack where the originator is identified seems
to be more of a problem. At least with an anonymous attack, a state can
plausibly deny that one of its citizens was involved. In fact, you could
see identified attacks on Chinese systems coming to be a form of civil
disobedience if Taiwan were to go this route. 

(I don't think Taiwan will - I'm just interested in this interplay between
private action and the state's responsibility.)

Suppose Taiwan proves unwilling or unable to stop private citizens from
attacking mainland Chinese systems. Now there seems to be a parallel with
situations where states are considered either supportive of terrorism or
too incompetent to prevent terrorist activity. Israel occupied southern
Lebanon because it didn't see any other way to prevent terrorist activity.
The alleged use of Libya and Sudan as "training grounds" could be viewed
as a kind of jurisdictional arbitrage, and a kind which has been reacted
against violently in the past. Fear of an analogous situation online seems
to be behind the "world cyber-crime treaty" mentioned here recently. 

Now bringing it closer to home, does that mean opposition to the world
cyber crime treaty could be cast as "support for cyber-terrorism"? 

-David