Chinese Respond to Allegations

This was written by Michael Cheek on Tuesday, November 24, 2009, 12:35.

Late last week, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission informed Congress in its annual report of the increasing number of cyber incidents by the Chinese against US systems and networks. Yesterday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry took the opportunity to respond to the allegations, claiming bias and incorrect reporting by the Commission.

Qin Gang, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on their website (www.mfa.gov.cn) “This report disregards the facts, is full of bias and has ulterior motives.” He dismissed the allegations that China was actively conducting cyber espionage against the US, as well as mapping US systems that could allow the Chinese to crash US systems in the event of conflict.

Gang also said “We advise this so-called commission to not always look at China through tinted glasses and stop interfering with China’s internal politics and damaging Sino-US ties.”

China often protests allegations of actions in cyberspace. However, most experts believe that the Chinese are steadily increasing their cyber capabilities and have traced a number of cyber intrusions to systems within China. Nevertheless, given the problems of attribution in cyberspace, it is difficult to prove Chinese government involvement.