Still, post-America's managerial class finds this bunch appealing for doing business deals

Some technical military details are now not nearly so classified as had been assumed:

Chinese spies stole key design information about the F-35 Lightening II multirole fighter, set to join the air force fleets of Australia, Japan and other U.S. allies, according to documents disclosed by former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Monday.

The report, citing new disclosures published by German magazine Der Spiegel, Chinese cyber spies stole huge volumes of sensitive military information, including "many terabytes of data" about the fighter such as details of its radar systems used to identify and track targets, according to a top secret U.S. National Security Agency presentation.

It is understood the main data breach took place at the prime contractor Lockheed Martin in 2007, predating orders for the F-35 Lightening II placed by Australia and Japan.

Both countries have already selected the F-35 Lightening II as the next generation fighter for their air forces. Japan has 42 of them on order, while Australia plans to acquire 72.

Although it has been previously alleged the joint strike fighter has been a target of Chinese cyber-espionage, the Snowden documents provide the first public confirmation of how much the highly sensitive data has been compromised, the Sydney Morning Herald said.

It said the leaked NSA briefings confirm that Australia has been informed of the "serious damage" caused by Chinese cyber-espionage relating to development of the F-35.

Not exactly "partner" behavior.