Merely a week after CPAC met to consider the proposed renewal of the MOU with the PRC, the news broke about an extensive PRC program to hack into US defense industry computer systems in an effort to steal US military secrets.
China is aggressively seeking an advantage against the US when it comes to defense preparedness. But so too is it with respect to the maintenance of a strong antiquities market. The difference is that the Defense Department is seeking to stymie Chinese ambitions, but our own State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and its Cultural Heritage Center seem all to willing to encourage a vibrant Chinese market at the expense of American interests-- all supposedly in the name of archaeology.