This really shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s paying attention, but the New York Times is reporting that the attacks on Google, other American tech and defense companies, and activists working for human rights in China and Tibet have been tied to universities in China that maintain close working relationships with the Chinese military and government.

It’d be great if Chinese acts of cyber espionage and industrial espionage had the power to influence the course of talks between the US and Chinese governments in the same way as, say, President Obama’s decision to hold a brief meeting with the Dalai Lama. For now, that does not to seem to be the case.