Actually, it’s funny – the hypothetical nature of that headline is rather moot, since China has already attempted to hack MetalMiner, with lukewarm results.

(After noticing hacking attempts into both MetalMiner.com and MetalMinerIndX.com, we had to take specific blocking measures to thwart the Chinese IP addresses.)

As far as Chinese hacking is concerned, MetalMiner shares the august company of the New York Times, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal as prime targets of Beijing’s spying efforts.

So what would China’s scheming state-appointed webmasters have found had they successfully tapped into MetalMiner’s treasure trove of commentary for metals buyers?

• Would they have stumbled upon the digital reams of stories covering the numerous fair trade infractions and actions levied upon them, as far as illegally dumping steel product imports into the US, the EU…(the list goes on)?
• Would they have shone the light on how China’s insatiable demand for steel, aluminum, copper and a panoply of other metals virtually drives the market we live to cover?
• Would they have uncovered our view of why, to the previous point, “nothing lasts forever?”
• Would they have cracked open our reporting on how China’s government is unfairly moving to compete with the Western world on its own turf, what with state subsidies and other incentives designed to ‘un-level’ the playing field?
• Would they have noticed that we carry more (and better) Chinese local pricing for countless types and forms of industrial metals than anyone else in the metals intelligence sphere?
• Or would they have peeked at (and potentially been offended) at our harmless — yet not totally unfounded — attempts to poke fun at Beijing’s ridiculosity?

We can only imagine what Chinese hackers are looking for; but at the end of that day, can we fault them for just wanting to be here, rather than over there?

Nahhh…no hard feelings, guys. We know your government’s sleazy, no surprise there at all – just keep your fiber-optic/carbon-fiber/whatever-the-Interwebs-are-made-of-these-days hands off MetalMiner!

But if you don’t – and we’re sure you’ll keep trying – you’re just giving us that much more to write about.

Photo source: Getty Images via Wall Street Journal