There is reason to be skeptical of such a scenario. The Chinese government has explicitly sought increased capability as a cyberspace power, and the hacking is consistent with this larger strategic goal. So while it is unlikely that President Xi Jinping himself authorized specific targets, it would be a major stretch to suggest that the PLA is disobeying the wishes of the civilian government by conducting these attacks.

Is China the only country that conducts cyber attacks? Why does it do it?

According to Lewis, there are five countries which stand out as having significant cyber-espionage capability: China, Russia, France, Israel, and the U.S. Capability, of course, does not mean intent, and it would be a mistake to judge all cyber attacks as equivalent. The United States, after all, famously conducted a series of attacks aimed at disrupting the Iranian nuclear program, an operation described in great and vivid detail by the New York Times' David Sanger. To say that China is the only country to launch cyber attacks against another is plainly inaccurate.

However, Adam Segal, the Maurice B. Greenberg Senior Fellow for China Studies for the Council on Foreign Relations, believes that the scale and scope of cyber conflict is greatest in China. "There's a sense of competitive metabolism there," he said, "and China has resources that the other countries lack." In terms of Beijing's relationship with the United States, cyber is an area in which China -- whose conventional military strength remains far inferior to that of the U.S. -- can gain an asymmetrical advantage over its strategic rival. Though the country continues to invest in its armed forces, China remains hemmed in by American military power in the Pacific and a string of U.S.-allied countries on its periphery, giving Beijing a strong incentive to seek any advantage it can get.

China also has motives that go beyond simple national security considerations. Since Deng Xiaoping initiated widespread reforms in 1978, Beijing has aggressively sought to acquire foreign technology and know-how as a means of developing the economy. Government efforts to foster "indigenous innovation" have yet to bear much fruit, so as a result, Lewis says, Beijing has adopted a "stopgap solution to use Western technology to get closer to their goals." The PLA's breach of commercial targets may have less to do with weakening American institutions than with strengthening Chinese ones.

How is the United States going to respond?

Just eight days ago, the Obama administration issued an Executive Order creating a voluntary program for organizations to adopt stringent cyber-security programs, evidence that the White House is hardly unaware of the threat from foreign hackers. Thus far, however, the U.S. has reacted to these threats defensively, urging companies and individuals to heighten their vigilance of possible "spearphishing" attacks, defined as those which involve embedding malicious links inside innocuous-seeming e-mails.