As the US Department of Justice announced it was charging five Chinese military officers for cyber theft on Monday morning, US and European negotiators were gathering in Virginia for their latest round of trade talks.

Given the stream of leaks over the past year about Washington’s spying on their missions to gain insights into negotiating positions, the Europeans may well have raised an eyebrow at the news. For US distinctions over “good” and “bad” espionage are not always so clear to the rest of the world.

America’s top secret intelligence “black budget”, among the most sensitive documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the former US intelligence contractor, carves out a special section on trade. US intelligence, it says, will “directly support and strengthen” Washington’s trade enforcement efforts and the rights America is trying to uphold through trade deals.