Originally Posted By: Dignan
And DDoSing someone's server is very different from attempting to spy on a specific Stanford student's GMail account. At least in my book.

My point is that just because you notice that the attack is coming from some specific country doesn't mean anything. You can rent a server in a country without ever stepping foot in it. I've got a server in the US and I'm not American. Doesn't mean that anything I do is backed by the US government.

Originally Posted By: Dignan
What I said was that to me it seems more likely that China did it, whether ordered by their government or not, than some third party.

You need to separate the questions you're asking. The questions you need to ask are:
1. What country did this?
2. Was it a government sponsored or backed operation?

If the answer to 1 is China and the answer to 2 is somebody random then this uproar about China as a country is meaningless. If it was an act by somebody not linked to the government then you can't tar & feather the entire country for their acts.