It’s happened again. A few days ago, cybersecurity officials in Washington, DC, confirmed that Chinese hackers who are associated with that country’s intelligence services last month exploited a vulnerability in Microsoft email systems to gain access to the communications of senior U.S. officials. Among the hacked were multiple top diplomats at the State Department as well as Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

Some of this surely is routine cyberespionage, albeit conducted in unsubtle Beijing fashion, which is standard practice in the intelligence trade everywhere these days. Neither were these classified emails that Beijing got access to. The damage from this hack appears to be modest, at least so far. Nevertheless, its timing is significant, while the political message is difficult to miss.