If I were a Chinese patriot, I have to assume I’d be delighted by Ellen Nakashima’s new report in the Washington Post, which focuses on how Chinese cyberspies secured the designs of a wide range of U.S. weapons systems:

The experts said the cybertheft creates three major problems. First, access to advanced U.S. designs gives China an immediate operational edge that could be exploited in a conflict. Second, it accelerates China’s acquisition of advanced military technology and saves billions in development costs. And third, the U.S. designs can be used to benefit China’s own defense industry. There are long-standing suspicions that China’s theft of designs for the F-35 fighter allowed Beijing to develop its version much faster.

Some of these weapons systems are explicitly designed to counter Chinese anti-access/area denial technologies, so the fact that the Chinese now have a better understanding of how our top-of-the-line weapons systems work is a big deal.