Google CEO Eric Schmidt\u2019s new book, co-authored with a former State Department superstar named Jared Cohen, doesn\u2019t come out until April. But The Wall Street Journal\u2019s Tom Gara got a hold of an advance copy and has been going through some of its ideas about the future of the Web. Particularly interesting are Schmidt\u2019s comments on China, which, according to Gara\u2019s reading, seem to portray the country as a rising threat not just to Web freedom but to the Internet itself.<\/p>\n
Schmidt and Cohen write that China is the world\u2019s \u201cmost sophisticated and prolific\u201d\u009d hacker, according to Gara. Their book reads, \u201d\u009dIt\u2019s fair to say we\u2019re already living in an age of state-led cyber war, even if most of us aren\u2019t aware of it.\u201d\u009d But their predictions for where that might lead the Internet, according to the Journal\u2019s report, include the dark possibility that it could split apart entirely.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s willingness to use aggressive, sophisticated hacking to get ahead, Schmidt seems to argue, will grant the country and its state-linked firms a significant advantage in the global economy.<\/p>\n