There is something refreshingly nostalgic about new accusations that China is, in the high style of the actual cold war, jamming the BBC’s shortwave radio broadcasts.

"The BBC has received reports that World Service English shortwave frequencies are being jammed in China," the British broadcaster said in a statement on February 25th.

"Though it is not possible at this stage to attribute the source of the jamming definitively, the extensive and co-ordinated efforts are indicative of a well-resourced country such as China," the BBC statement added. China has yet to respond officially to the accusation.

The BBC’s language echoed the conclusions of a report issued last week by an American information-security firm, Mandiant, which detailed a vast and sophisticated computer hacking operation based in a nondescript building in Shanghai.