The feeling I get is that people think the Chinese are somehow playing dirty pool. That the USA and its military are far above such tactics. So a country with an approved policy of drones and torture would never  go so low as to hack foreign corporations. Come on folks are we for real here. The Chinese hack Coca Cola and we worridly shake our heads while US drones are incinerating the guilty and the non-guilty on a daily basis, to think that we didn't write the playbook. Let's try to stop these incursions but also let's drop the holier than thou act also.  

It probably is "all of the above." Blaming China (or Iran or Syria before it got tied up with its civil war) is expedient and, probably, partially true. But I'd think there are also individuals or gangs at work, too. There's no way organized crime groups aren't involved. Or some businesspeople who don't care how they do it, but just want to 'win' at all costs (just as they have done so in the past by hiring people to physically break into offices, break union organizers' knees, or bribe people to smash a competitor's equipment). There doesn't have to be only one enemy. There can be many, in multiple forms. 

That's a great point, Sharon. And something I haven't seen raised anywhere else. 

From what I've read, the motivation is venal. These hackers infiltrate US companies in order to steal intellectual property that allows (allegedly) Chinese manufacturers to get one step ahead of US manufacturers. It allows oil companies, for examples, to underbid for rights, since they know the price their competitors are bidding. Think of any instance where inside information is useful and you can easily imagine why organized hackers want to get inside corporate or government systems. 

In the world of espionage just who can you trust? To figure who's telling the truth, with allegation flying wildly, isn't going to be the easiest thing to do....unless you're part of the spy/hacker network.

It may be convenenient to blame our "enemies" and may be politically expedient to do so. But, are the 'facts' now being uncovered convincing?

All we can be sure of is there is the possibility of company and government data being comprimised. Whether 'we've met the enemy and it is us' will remain to be seen.  Who should be trusted and who distrusted?

Yea that true. But sometimes in the world of Cyberwarfare, its easier to attack then to disguise yourself skilfully. Hackers are spread everywhere across the world, they are successful in carrying out most of the attacks but the real test comes up when you do not let the enemy know where did the attack come from. I think , Chinese have yet to acquire such sophistication which could totally mask their real trigger pullers. In case of senstive networks and datacentres, an attack can inflict debilitating loss to the target system. System need to have robust security mechanism to thwart such attacks in future and to safeguard information of real value. 

@Thinkernetter. Infact Chinese are using same tactics now. They are using third country to disguise who are the real hacker behind such attacks. In the recent past, face and one of leading newspapers in US were attacked by Chinese while shrouding thier real identity. Cyberwarfare is evolving with attack and counter attacks. We have seen how Wikileaks created ripples across the globe and put a big question mark in the safety / security on supposedly most secure networks. When a crime is committed... the investigated is started from the question "Who is beneficiary" ? You know in the clash of titans ... the enemy are not hidden !!!!

if they're good enough hackers to do it, they're good enough to spoof where it appears to be from.

Question: Do American hackers conduct similar attacks on other countries' companies or institutions? If so what would the motivation be?

Don't get me wrong, but why would the Chinese government encourage such attacks on US infrastructures when they know that the Americans have all the necessary means to fight back? Why don't we look ain the "Anonymous" direction for instance?