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I was in my 7th grade health class and the teacher asked, "What is the speed of a nerve impulse when it travels to the brain?" I had read an article about that at one time and the teacher asked me, "What is your answer?" I replied, "Four miles per hour." The whole class erupted in laughter and the derision . I thought I was correct in my answer but after everyone in the class did that, I lost s...

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Genocide: If Stalin or Mao killed more people than Hitler, why is Hitler considered the worst?

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Answer (1 of 59): One reason is the nature of the deaths attributed to Hitler, the other reason has to do with who wrote history. Organized Genocide vs. Political Killings Hitler is well known for organizing genocide on a mass scale, trying to completely eliminate entire groups of people, most ...

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Born a peasant, Mao Tse-tung became one of the most powerful men in the world. Through political cunning and ruthless tactics, he dragged a backward China into the 20th century.

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China's spies hacked into computers at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from 2010 until 2013 -- and American government officials tried to cover it up, according to a Congressional report.

The House of Representative's Science, Space and Technology Committee released its investigative report on Wednesday.

It presents the FDIC's bank regulators as technologically inept -- and deceitful.

According to congressional investigators, the Chinese government hacked into 12 computers and 10 backroom servers at the FDIC, including the incredibly sensitive personal computers of the agency's top officials: the FDIC chairman, his chief of staff, and the general counsel.

When congressional investigators tried to review the FDIC's cybersecurity policy, the agency hid the hack, according to the report.

Investigators cited several insiders who knew about how the agency responded. For example, one of the FDIC's top lawyers told employees not to discuss the hacks via email -- so the emails wouldn't become official government records.

FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg is being summoned before the Congressional committee on Thursday to explain what happened.

The FDIC refused to comment. However, in a recent internal review, the agency admits that it "did not accurately portray the extent of risk" to Congress and recordkeeping "needs improvement." The FDIC claims it's now updating its policies.

Given the FDIC's role as a national banking regulator, the revelation of this hack poses serious concern.

Related: Are Chinese hackers dialing back attacks on the U.S.?

The FDIC's role is to monitor any bank that isn't reviewed by the Federal Reserve system. It has access to extremely sensitive, internal information at 4,500 banks and savings institutions.

The FDIC also insures deposits at banks nationwide, giving it access to huge loads of information on Americans.

"Obviously it's indicative of the Chinese effort to database as much information as possible about Americans. FDIC information is right in line with the deep personal information they've gone for in the past," said computer security researcher Ryan Duff. He's a former member of U.S. Cyber Command, the American military's hacking unit.

"Intentionally avoiding audits sounds unethical if not illegal," he added.

Congressional investigators discovered the hacks after finding a 2013 memo from the FDIC's own inspector general to the agency's chairman, which detailed the hack and criticized the agency for "violating its own policies and for failing to alert appropriate authorities."

Related: Chinese man admits to cyber spying on Boeing and other U.S. firms

The report also says this culture of secrecy led the FDIC's chief information officer, Russ Pittman, to mislead auditors. One whistleblower, whose identity is not revealed in the report, claimed that Pittman "instructed employees not to discuss... this foreign government penetration of the FDIC's network" to avoid ruining Gruenberg's confirmation by the U.S. Senate in March 2012.

David Kennedy, a computer security expert and former analyst at the NSA spy agency, worries that federal agencies are repeatedly hiding hacks "under the blanket of national security."

"With such a high profile breach and hitting the top levels of the FDIC, it's crazy to me to think that this type of information wasn't publicly released. We need to be deeply concerned around the disclosure process around our federal government," said Kennedy, who now runs the cybersecurity firm TrustedSec.

Related: China blames criminals for U.S. government hack

This same committee, led by Republican Congressman Lamar Smith of Texas, has previously criticized the FDIC for minimizing data breaches.

Several cybersecurity experts -- who have extensive experience guarding government computers -- expressed dismay at the alleged coverup.

"It's incumbent upon our policymakers to know about these data breaches so we can properly evaluate our defenses. Trying to hide successful intrusions only makes it easier for the next hacker to get in," said Dan Guido, who runs the cybersecurity firm Trail of Bits.

CNNMoney (New York) First published July 13, 2016: 1:22 PM ET

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China hacked the FDIC - and US officials covered it up, report says

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The House of Representative's Science, Space and Technology Committee released its investigative report on Wednesday. It presents the FDIC's bank regulators as technologically inept -- and deceitful. According to congressional investigators, the Chinese government hacked into 12 computers and 10 backroom servers at the FDIC, including the incredibly sensitive personal computers of the agency's top officials: the FDIC chairman, his chief of staff, and the general counsel.

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China's Communist government is rolling out a plan to assign everyone in the country "citizenship scores." According to the ACLU, "China appears to be leveraging all the tools of the information age-electronic purchasing data, social networks, algorithmic sorting-to construct the ultimate tool of social control. It is, as one commentator put it, 'authoritarianism, gamified.' " In the system, everyone is measured by a score ranging from 350 to 950, and that score is linked to a national ID card. In addition to measuring your financial credit, it will also measure political compliance. Expressing the wrong opinion-or merely having friends who express the wrong opinion-will hurt your score. The higher your score, the more privileges the government will grant you.

This horrifying plan is to be administered by Alibaba and Tencent, companies that run much of China's approved social networks and already have tremendous stores of data about what Chinese citizens are saying. When it comes to weaponizing oppression, even the Communist Chinese now see the value of private enterprise. That's something to keep in mind when American politicians inevitably start agitating to enlist Apple or Google in launching some grand political initiative.

It's worth noting that at least one big American tech company is already a party to this oppressive nightmare. Yahoo still owns a hefty chunk-worth about $23 billion-of Alibaba stock. As The Weekly Standard's Mark Hemingway noted in "The Media Kowtow" (Nov. 11, 2013), a feature on how American media are complicit in covering up Chinese human rights abuses, Yahoo was allowed to purchase a big chunk of Alibaba way back in 2006, less than a year after it voluntarily coughed up the identity of a democracy activist who was anonymously using a Yahoo email address, at the Chinese government's request.

Journalist Shi Tao as a result was sentenced to 10 years in prison for leaking Chinese Propaganda Department directives showing that Beijing was suppressing attempts to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Yahoo may hope you believe that approval to purchase what turned out to be an extremely lucrative pre-IPO stake in Alibaba was in no way related to its willingness to help the Chinese government imprison Shi Tao for the crime of wanting to live in a free country. But no one believes that.

Yahoo has plans to spin off their Alibaba investment into a profitable holding company so they can avoid billions in taxes, but so far the IRS has dragged its feet approving the deal. It would be nice if the American government-to say nothing of Yahoo's investors and business partners-did something to demonstrate they care that the company is set to make billions profiting off Alibaba and its plans to reduce the financial prospects and political freedom of 1.3 billion people to a "citizen score" controlled by a murderous and oppressive regime.

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China's Communist government is rolling out a plan to assign everyone in the country "citizenship scores." According to the ACLU, "China appears to be leveraging all the tools of the information age-electronic purchasing data, social networks, algorithmic sorting-to construct the ultimate tool of social control.

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AP

Note: Spoilers ahead if you haven't seen or read "The Martian."

In the " The Martian," a hit sci-fi novel and recent blockbuster movie, there's a moment where NASA launches a rocket full of supplies to Mark Watney, an astronaut stranded on Mars.

Unfortunately for Watney, the rocket blows up and NASA doesn't have a backup - and without new supplies Watney will slowly starve to death on the red planet.

China's space agency sees the tragic news, however, and offers its Taiyang Shen space probe rocket to NASA. They do this through a gentleman's agreement between scientists to bypasses lawmaker and red tape. That way, the US space agency can get another shot at saving Watney's life.

This collaboration between supposedly bitter national rivals sounds great in theory, but is it possible?

As astrophysicist and StarTalk Radio host Neil deGrasse Tyson put it on Twitter:

@neiltyson/Twitter

Tyson is correct to think this strategy would never work, at least not today.

The reason is because, in 2011, Congress passed a spending bill that expressly forbids NASA from working with China, citing a high risk of espionage.

What's more, it doesn't sound like the attitudes of US lawmakers toward the People's Republic of China are changing anytime soon.

A 2015 report from the University of California called " China Dream, Space Dream" concludes that: "China's efforts to use its space program to transform itself into a military, economic, and technological power may come at the expense of U.S. leadership and has serious implications for U.S. interests."

It will take a big policy shift to change that sentiment and foster collaboration between NASA and the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

Thomson Reuters

One of the biggest collaborative projects in which NASA is involved is the International Space Station (ISS). It's a space station built and maintained by the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

China, however, is banned from involvement in the ISS, thanks to US lawmakers.

But CNSA seems to be doing just fine on its own. Since its founding in 1993, the Chinese space agency has launched 10 people and a small space station into orbit, among other missions.

China's successes in space have impressed NASA enough to broach the topic of collaboration several times at the White House. But according to space policy expert John Logsdon, getting the US to work together with China on spaceward missions will take a long policy battle.

"The first step is the White House working with congressional leadership to get current, unwise restrictions on such cooperation revoked," Logsdon told Space.com. "Then, the United States can invite China to work together with the United States and other spacefaring countries on a wide variety of space activities and, most dramatically, human spaceflight."

NASA could have much to gain in the future in working with China.

AP

China became the third country ever to successfully launch humans into space, behind Russia and the US, and it's made much progress since.

Two years ago, CNSA landed a small telescope on the moon, which is still up there taking crystal-clear images of the cosmos (because Earth's dirty atmosphere isn't in the way). The agency also operates its own space lab called Tiangong 1, is testing powerful new rockets, and has ambitious plans to land more probes on the moon and perhaps a colony there one day.

If CNSA's progress in space exploration and tech development isn't a compelling enough reason to work with China, then NASA's stunted budget offers another. More international collaboration could only be positive for a space agency that has faced budget cut after budget cut. President John F. Kennedy committed to a moon landing by the end of the 1960s, then Nixon took the helm and slammed on the brakes after a handful of crewed lunar missions.

As Logsdon writes in an article for NASA:

"Nixon rejected NASA's ambitious post-Apollo plans, which included developing a series of large space stations, continued missions to the moon, and an initial mission to Mars in the 1980s," Logsdon writes. "By the time Nixon left the White House, the NASA budget had fallen from its peak of almost 4% of the total federal budget to less than 1%."

Some argue that we would already have sent humans to Mars if NASA had kept its momentum. More collaboration could help get NASA back on track.

NASA administrator Charles Bolden event wrote in a recent blog post that he thinks more collaboration will help get us get boots on Mars:

A Journey such as this is something that no one person, crew, or Agency can undertake alone. [...] A mission of this magnitude is made stronger with international partnership - the sort of spirit and cooperation that is demonstrated so vividly by the tens of thousands of people across 15 countries who have been involved in the development and operation of the International Space Station.

In fact, NASA just announced a partnership with the Israel Space Agency that will allow the two agencies to conduct joint missions and share research facilities.

Reuters/Jason lee

I personally think it would be great to see a similar agreement with China some day soon - especially since the nation announced it's seeking international partners to help build another space station in the 2020s (and the station sounds really cool). But again, current US law forbids NASA from helping out or getting involved at all.

Russia will only support the $100 billion space station until 2024, and that's a huge problem because, right now, NASA relies on Russia's rockets to get its astronauts into space. It's unclear what NASA will do once Russia pulls out. Working with China and other nations to build a bigger and better space station would be a great option. Instead of two space stations, we could have one truly international station with the most brilliant scientists around the world working together.

That kind of collaboration would speed up tech development; instead of space stations just copying each other's rockets and space probes, we could start working together to advance technology at a much faster pace than we are right now. We'll need a new generation of space tech if we ever hope to get to Mars.

It already seems like the two agencies do want to collaborate, since discussion of that possibility has reached the White House several times. US scientists have also openly criticized policy makers in the past for preventing Chinese scientists from attending space conferences. It seems like politics shouldn't get in the way of pure scientific pursuit, but the reality is US lawmakers won't allow collaboration with China because they are worried about national security and protecting state secrets. But who knows, if the two space agencies started working together, it might open up enough lines of communication between the US and China for the two nations to defrost their icy relationship.

In the meantime China will continue to expand its space exploration efforts. Unless a big policy shift happens, NASA might have to sit on the sidelines while an incredible new chapter of space exploration begins.

NOW WATCH: NASA challenged designers to make a Martian home - one company created something incredible

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Here's why NASA won't work with China to explore space

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Note: Spoilers ahead if you haven't seen or read "The Martian." In the " The Martian," a hit sci-fi novel and recent blockbuster movie, there's a moment where NASA launches a rocket full of supplies to Mark Watney, an astronaut stranded on Mars.

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in 1966

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Death rates and birthrates compared in China

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Death rates and birthrates compared in China

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Graph of Dictators and how many they killed compared to one another.

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Graph of Dictators and how many they killed compared to one another.

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"His mistakes are the mistakes of a great revolutionary, a great Marxist," Mr. Jiang added in what was the culmination of some artful historical revisionism that has been taking shape for several years.

But despite efforts toward a smooth transition for President Jiang, who holds all the titles to make him the next paramount leader as designated by Mr. Deng in 1989, many Chinese and Western political analysts say Mr. Jiang lacks the leadership skills to maintain power. They say he could be replaced in the same manner that Hua Guofeng, Mao's designated successor, was eased out by Mr. Deng. Many Still Revere Mao

As Mr. Jiang spoke, a cold front newly arrived from Mongolia raked the broad central square of the capital with subzero winds, whipping the fabric of the bright red Chinese flags hoisted en masse for the occasion. A small crowd of a thousand or more ordinary Chinese, many of whom still revere the "Great Helmsman," huddled against the barricades to watch the line of black sedans that deposited virtually all of China's top leaders on the steps of the Great Hall.

Inside the hall, a structure built under Mao's order in 10 months in the late 1950's, the audience sat amid red slogan banners as a military band and chorus banged out patriotic tunes under the gleaming giant red star fixed in the ceiling 100 feet above the podium. The stage was framed by a forest of ferns and poinsettias along with miniature kumquat and tangerine trees, traditional symbols of optimism.

While proclaiming Mao "a great patriot and national hero in China's modern history," President Jiang also pointed out that it was Mr. Deng who had brought the Communist Party back to a path of economic reconstruction and prosperity.

Mr. Jiang was alone among the inner circle of leaders wearing a crisply tailored Mao suit of the style that was de rigueur in the proletarian Mao years. Also present in the prominent seats to Mr. Jiang's right was Yang Shangkun, the former President who lost his leadership posts in late 1992 and early 1993 and was replaced by Mr. Jiang. Mr. Yang left the dais about a third of the way through Mr. Jiang's speech. Progress and Persecution

After the ceremony, Mr. Jiang led the assembled leadership to view Mao's sarcophagus, enshrined in the square where Mao declared the founding of the People's Republic of China from atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace on Oct. 1, 1949.

During his rule, China was transformed from a semifeudal, largely illiterate society into an industrialized Communist state with nuclear weapons. While China achieved enormous economic progress in Mao's early years, millions were persecuted, imprisoned or killed during mass political campaigns that he ignited. Chief among them were the anti-rightist campaign of 1957 and the Cultural Revolution, which lasted from 1966 until 1976, when Mao died.

In a recent issue of The China Quarterly, Lucian W. Pye, professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, observed: "The chairman was a master manipulator of public sentiments, but in the implementation of public policy, Mao's record was unimpressive, especially the appallingly cruel treatment of people. No other Chinese ruler matched him in the numbers of people killed, banished from their homes to rural exile, imprisoned both in the gulags and in caste-like categories of class identities, and who starved in policy-produced famines."

The costs of the Communist revolution continue to weigh on the minds dissidents.

"The Soviets don't commemorate Stalin, and 150 years after the birth of Mao the Chinese will certainly not commemorate Mao," said Xu Liangying, 73, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who advocates a new democratic movement in China. Criticism of Current Leaders

Both he and another prominent dissident, Wei Jingsheng, said some elements of the Communist Party were continuing to deify Mao as a means to attack Mr. Deng and his proteges for their economic reforms, which are intended to lead to dismantling of the traditional command economy dominated by state planners.

Offering another motive, Mr. Wei said, "The people often believe that leaders in Mao's days were relatively honest and effectual, so the people's celebration of the 100th anniversary is an act of protest against the corruption and powerlessness of today's leaders."

Yet another view came from Yu Haocheng, a former propagandist in the Public Security Bureau who lost his position for his pro-democratic views.

"If China doesn't criticize Mao Zedong -- if it doesn't pursue de-Maoitization -- then China has no way to modernize," Mr. Yu said in an interview last week.

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China's Rulers Honor Mao, as Well as His Undoer

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"His mistakes are the mistakes of a great revolutionary, a great Marxist," Mr. Jiang added in what was the culmination of some artful historical revisionism that has been taking shape for several years.

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The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an independent, nonpartisan member organization, think tank, and publisher.