China Accuses U.S. of Cyberwarfare
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By Kim Zetter
- January 25, 2010 |
- 2:07 pm |
- Categories: Cyber Warfare, Cybersecurity
In the wake of a recent speech by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemning countries that censor the internet and engage in hacking, China has lobbed a return volley and accused the United States of hypocrisy and initiating cyberwarfare against Iran.
An editorial in the People’s Daily — the primary mouthpiece for China’s Communist Party — accused the United States of doublespeak and of using “online warfare” to instigate violent unrest in Iran with Twitter and YouTube following that country’s national elections in June.
“We’re afraid that in the eyes of American politicians, only information controlled by America is free information, only news acknowledged by America is free news, only speech approved by America is free speech, and only information flow that suits American interests is free information flow,” said the Sunday editorial, according to the Guardian newspaper.
The editorial was taking aim at a speech by Clinton last Thursday in which she said that access to information, and the internet, is a basic human right. She said that countries around the world were erecting virtual walls in place of the physical walls that generally characterize oppressive regimes.
Clinton urged U.S. media companies to challenge foreign governments’ demands for censorship and surveillance.
Clinton did not mention China specifically but also said that “Countries or individuals that engage in cyberattacks should face consequences and international condemnation.”
She was speaking in the wake of an announcement from Google that it had decided to stop censoring search results on its Chinese-language search engine and may vacate China altogether after discovering that it, and nearly three dozen other companies, had been the target of a coordinated hack attack that originated in China.
The People’s Daily, however, didn’t take the speech calmly.
“Behind what America calls free speech is naked political scheming. How did the unrest after the Iranian election come about?” said the paper. “It was because online warfare launched by America, via YouTube video and Twitter microblogging, spread rumours, created splits, stirred up and sowed discord between the followers of conservative reformist factions.”
Last June, the U.S. State Department asked Twitter to postpone scheduled maintenance that would have increased its server capacity but also would have closed down the system for a short time during the daytime hours in Iran, preventing Iranian protestors from using the social-networking service to organize and chronicle a government crackdown.
“When we worked with our network provider yesterday to reschedule this planned maintenance, we did so because events in Iran were tied directly to the growing significance of Twitter as an important communication and information network,” Twitter co-founder Biz Stone disclosed in a blog post at the time. “It made sense for Twitter and for NTT America to keep services active during this highly visible global event.”
Iranian voters took to the streets to protest the election between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and defeated challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi, accusing the government of having rigged the election. The unrest resulted in unknown numbers of deaths and arrests. Iranian protestors used numerous social networking services to communicate with others inside and outside the country about the events in their country.
A State Department spokesman at the time denied that the U.S. was intruding on Iran’s domestic affairs.
“This is about giving their voices a chance to be heard. One of the ways that their voices are heard are through new media,” spokesman Ian Kelly told Reuters.
China began blocking YouTube last March in anticipation of protests on the anniversary of uprisings in Tibet. It also began blocking Twitter in June, prior to the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square uprising. Reuters reports that Facebook has also been down in the country since July.
Photo courtesy U.S. State Department
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Yes China I see your point. A private company enabling Iranians to express a political opinion on their on government is the same thing as an in power political party spying on political dissidents.
/sarcasm
@China:
D’awh… U mad?
No but really, spying on political opponents / hacking multiple personal websites for your own paranoid benefit is totally the same as saying “actually hey Twitter we know you are going to get overwhelmed, but we’d rather let people play-by-play it and keep your services up instead of blocking them outright for a while.”
I have to say that China does have a point.
Although for us, it may be voicing political opinion at this point, I wonder how the social networks would react if there was a large consensus to us voicing violence and up-rising against the government in our own country…
I think any government would take measures against that spreading, even in “free speech” societies. I mean, we do have passages in law allowing Martial Law and War Time Powers.
Not to say that Chinese government censoring is right by any means…
OH WAIT.
@RobotKillerBee:
I bet I could post 14 kinds of government-hatin’ crap on my Facebook right now and no one would care except my friends would probably make fun of me.
The mainstream media does the same exact thing. They censor information according to the conglomerates desires. News is scripted, and points, guests, and interviews are guided with precision. How is that any different??
Wow, the Chinese have gone degenerate on us.
The Chinese government – this collection of utter douchebags makes me feel better about our own incredibly crappy government.
I wish Americans were mandated to read things like this every time they were about to make a purchase from a Chinese company. I have no allusions that our Government isn’t involved in cyberwar, but the level of propaganda coming out of the Chinese is nothing less than incredible. Seems like they hate America, maybe that’s why they keep selling us inferior goods. WAKE UP AMERICA!
China’s “People’s Daily” = United States’ “Fox News”.
Nuf said.
…but not to pick on Fox too much, to a lesser degree my statement applies to all corporate controlled mainstream media in the US.
Meh… Pretty much everyone takes it for granted the Chinese Communist Party are collectively a paranoid bunch of control freaks.
This will eventually come full circle and byte ‘em in the ass. I have faith that if Net users stuck behind the ‘Great Firewall’ truly desire open access to the world at large, they can surely find a sneaky-ass way to ‘Get ‘er Done’.
Let’s see, China, source of numerous cyber attacks in the US and also maker of toxic childrens toys to boot. Hillary Clinton, loud mouth hypocrite who seems to have forgotten the ‘White Water Coverup,” funny stock investments, and also holder of “secret” white house meetings while not even an elected official! Now she lectures the Chinese on openess – ha ha ha. Both Stink! China should get its act together, and Hillary should silently go away and enjoy her millions, but most of all, close her stupid mouth.
Cyber warfare because people were blogging and vlogging? What a joke. More Chinese attempts at propaganda, but its easy to see through it all.
I respect SoS Clinton for speaking out on this matter. It’s comical to see the Chinese government partake in this exchange, which is basically akin to “We’re proud of our suppression of people and are willing to publically exclaim our pride in the matter, while you Americans who freely express yourselves and advocate the freedom of expression in the rest of the world should be ashamed of yourselves for advocating for..well..the freedom of expression.” What will they be saying next? “We’re proud of our cultural and reproductive suppression (and elimination) of the female sex, and you Americans who advocate for respect of the fairer sex should be ashamed of yourselves.” Good job China.
What just a minute! Chinese are not allowed to read the book 1984(Orwellian Doublespeak), it is banned and forbidden, so how could China accuse America of it???
Does this mean that a Chinese government officer broke Chinese law??? (He read 1984 a learned of Doublespeak! Arrest him!)
Does this mean that the Chinese can read 1984 and are Doublespeaking by accusing the US of using something they cannot know of against them, even though they have read it???(My personal favorite.)
Or perhaps China is responding the same way it always does.
“China has the right to do whatever it wants whenever it wants. We are a soverign country.”
Not that THIS IS the response to every they China has ever been questioned about.
At some point someone’s going to notice my #3 and stop sending words, and instead sending actions their way.
In other news the Chinese government said the sky is yellow not blue and will be sending citizens who are unable to see the correct color to reeducation camps.
Hatred and war largely come about from misunderstanding. I think people are reading way too much into the exact words China is saying (they are translations anyway), and not why China is saying all of this.
Chinese people see Americans as cultural-elitists. It is not a lie and I’m sure even we have to see this in ourselves.
In a recent speech, Clinton suggested a stereotype that included China and countries like Saudi Arabia. How would you like it if someone says to your country to stop being like another country? How do you think a country should react when it gets insulted by a ‘respectable’ politician? (And especially a non-Chinese one.)
Americans are very cultural-elitist. This is what makes Americans highly susceptible to active racism (segregation in the past). Nowadays if someone says the word Mexican, there might even be a negative connotation to it. Think about that. You can be not cool simply because you are a ‘minority’. Americans are now playing the game against China where they’ve played against other cultural people as well. That is, they are implanting a negative connotation to Chinese people. I’m afraid American hype is too much a norm into today’s nation that runs on advertisements.
I think Americans just need to leave China alone. Unlike a western nation, China is able to support itself without worldly trade. Anyone ever study history? China doesn’t need America’s existence. So there is no substance in saying that China should go to hell because China never wanted a volatile relationship with the western nations in the first place.
The second point you guys don’t seem to see is the cyber warfare part. China and America are at war.
But this is not a physical war.
“Cyber warfare because people were blogging and vlogging”
@tehb2
It is so friggin dangerous when the most socially interactive people in the world is trying to inspire revolution in another country.
That is very aggressive.
Anyone ever heard of how America took control over the Panama Canal? They got money from people who used the canal even though the canal was never in America.
How did this happen? Study history.
I was taught that America inspired a revolution/uprising in the area so they could take advantage of the unrest there.
EVERYONE wants a piece of China. If no one sees that @Marticus, then you are really missing the economic motive of America.
But even America has schemes to take it.
And one of these schemes I’m afraid, is to inspire political unrest in a country that is alarmingly overtaking America. This is dangerous because it WORKS.
And obviously it’s only a war if China does something back at us. Which is hacking.
If you America succeeds at inspiring uprisings in China, many Chinese people will die.
If China succeeds at hacking 30 companies, … well you see the point. The lives don’t compare.
Americans aren’t seeing the big picture.
“using “online warfare” to instigate violent unrest in Iran with Twitter and YouTube” haha really warfare with twitter and youtube, wtf we will spam you with terrible movie clips and annoying “good morning twitter” spam. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!
Dear PRC; We Americans remember the Korean War and who attacked and killed our Grandfathers and we remember who voted for you to get Most Favored Trading Nation and We remember the Fat Dirty Pig Mao and all the people he killed. So from the bottom of our American hearts we sincerely say “Go FOK yourselves”. Pop Quiz Ugly Chinese Dogs; What country first used Nukes? PS How many days before you attack and invade Taiwan? 365? Shalom Scum.
So sad to see some of the sheep on the blog supporting the Chinese, even partially.
Boycott China, it’s incredible that we are infusing billions upon trillions of dollars into their evil regime, buying worthless goods and services with piss poor quality standards. You think they would have the United States back over Iran, as we are their largest trading partner. China is a disgrace.
Americans are seperatists, terrorists and slaves to morality!!
Google enter the fast growing country of China to earn some quick $$$$, then they realize that the censorship agreement that they had agreed to with the China had actually hinder their progress. No matter what they did, they lagged significantly behind Baidu. Their profits were minute compared to what they could be making. What could they do now? So all the Google people and some anti-China politicians (who are also Google shareholders) got together to concoct this scheme to remove censorship so that Google can have free reign to do whatever it wishes in China and naturally increase profits. In hind site, Google over estimated the US ability to control other countries. China buys our debts and supplies Americans with affordable goods. They make it possible for Americans to buy and have more for much less. Google is faced with either leaving China and lose out on a lot of $$$ (or) stay and continue with censorship, and (as the Chinese would say) lose face. Google was ridicule by the US for entering China. China will ridicule Google for staying. BTW, the most innovated advance internet company in world was hacked by a developing country is very hard to swallow. Google, please stand tall and exit China.
China manufacture goods according to the standards and specifications that Americans companies provide to them. Many unscrupulous American companies choose unscrupulous manufacturers to increase $$$$. This occurs every where — even in the wonderful USA. It is ludicrous to blame the farm hands and not the big American CONglomerate making millions by affectively cost cutting and selling you cheap goods. Blame the company who sold it you; the ones who took your money. It does not matter where it was made.
Google: Hand China the Net freedom they so dearly lack, but desperately need & desire… ACCESS TO GOOD OLD FASHIONED TASTY GLOBAL PORN.
Heh…
Maybe America should stay out of everyone’s affairs and worry about itself for a change.
So right now…. Microsoft is shedding jobs and hiring people in China to do the same programming work. I speak from first hand knowledge of this. Of course they’ve already moved their manufacturing there, just as has 90% of every non-commodity manufacturing job in the US.
When will we wake up? Free trade is great when two nations are freely trading goods such as corn and oil or textile vs. intellectual skills. But when you face a country like China that has a billion people who can produce and manufacture and engineer just as well as the US in every sector….and do it for a fraction of the cost, you no longer have free trade. You have a mass exodus of jobs from the US to a communist country. We as a country should be ashamed of ourselves and where this has lead us. We call it free economics, I’ll call the rich executives got rich and America got fleeced.
This actually isn’t a surprising response and is probably more for the Chinese people than for Mrs Clinton. The Chinese government (and even much of its population) feels that it’s job of censorship and media control to the point of rewriting history isn’t just legitimate and normal, but a requirement of keeping the Chinese population moral, just and content (read: under control). They really are in a pickle, though, as technology is evolving almost faster than they can keep up, and drawing attention to the censorship by Mrs Clinton and Google scares the bejesus out of them for good reason! It’s not so much that China supports Iran (well, they might a little), it’s that they exactly fear what happened in Iran to happening in China. Imagine Tiananmen Square happening again except using technology to let it spread like wildfire? It probably won’t happen, though, because China’s economy is booming and the Chinese people are living better now than they have at any time in the past. So for now, they will probably accept their government’s position that the censorship is a way of protecting them from the West poisoning their minds and turning them against a government which is making them flourish.
China maybe crazy paranoid about a whole lot of things. That said, how come the great US of A is still unable to tell the truth about Iraq, about wiretapping, appears to be governed by Wall Street and the military industrial complex, is massively in debt to countries such as China, cannot insure the health of its citizens? All of this is going on and people are crying about China. Forget about China for a while and look at home. With all our potential why is it such an effing mess? That’s what I’d like to know.
Stealing IP from U.S. companies to benefit your own sheltered and clueless industries is the same as the U.S. government trying to help the Iranians undermine their tyrannical religious oligarchy. Same. F*cking. Thing. Also, wondering if the Great FireWall is working as well for you as it did your ancestors; it’s not like anyone can go under or around it, right?
Hey China, that’s not a cyber attack, that’s a browser search. It’s a subtle distinction but an important one.
“Behind what America calls free speech is naked political scheming. How did the unrest after the Iranian election come about?”
They have a point there, the US government is treating people expressing their opinions in the same way the Chineese government is when it is considered threatening to the government monopoly on (drugs, money, power) examples yo’re not allowed to advertise medicine not approved by FDA(even if its a natural cure that has been used for medication for thousands of years) you’re not allowed to advertise any kind of money alternative E-Gold(whas brutally shut down), everything that the government has been caught with doing illegaly has been labeled a national security threat and classified etc. No we US is only marginally better than the Chineese Gov. the only difference is that we can watch porn they can’t
@RobotKillerBee:
I bet I could post 14 kinds of government-hatin’ crap on my Facebook right now and no one would care except my friends would probably make fun of me.
That is not true if you advertise violent unrest you’d be investigated and posibly imprisioned if the government deemed u a threat there are laws against this, and if they would not find a law they make it up, you’d be screwed if you promoted violence against government
The sad truth is the Germans under Hitler had more freedoms that we have today in most countries, sure it sucked to be a Jew but if you where German you had a lot more freedom and lower taxes that you have today
“Maybe America should stay out of everyone’s affairs and worry about itself for a change.”
Seconded. Though let’s be honest here, America only ever gets involved with other countries to further itself in some roundabout, and often ethically ambiguous, way.
Nice. China has resorted to that time-honored diplomatic response to accusations of internal impropriety in allowing its citizens freedom of expression.
“No, YOU!”
KidPlutonium: Governments can lie, but when it stops people from exposing them as liars, THAT’s when it has to be stopped.
curio50: Hillary Clinton is the Secretary of State. Regardless of her past transgressions, she is actually doing a remarkably good job.
tacowrap: Please read about economic theory and practice – China needs us far more than we need them. If the 2 countries were to cut all ties today, China would have 1) far fewer jobs for their people, (as low wage as they are, we DO provide them with a large number of jobs), and more importantly, 2) a place to sell their goods. For us, prices would go up, but without us, China would have serious social instability right away (lack of jobs creates actual [non-political] crime, something they have no real experience with).
Anonymoussquirrel: Not sure that bringing Nazi Germany into this conversation is productive. Also, lower taxes in Nazi Germany might not really be a relevant fact considering their systematic murder of millions of people – I would consider that, well, the opposite of a “value-added” policy.
KidPlutonium: Why is it all such an effing mess? Because when a government allows its people FREEDOM, the cost is efficiency.
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The Soviets and the pre-capitalist PRC were very “efficient” – fear of being sent to a gulag tends to get you moving in the morning. The cost to them, though, was creativity. They could not get out of their own way to figure out innovative solutions to the crushing problems of their societies.
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So you have today’s Russia – an increasingly oppressive expansionist power acting out of fear, and China – a panicked group of plutocrats desperately trying to make the vast amounts of money they “earned” (read:stole) from the oppressed majority keep them safe from those same people.
ah ah ah , LMAO , us attacks iran , iran attacks china , china attacks us , in the end the free world citizens get to chow on the warm corpse of dying national government concept . the political leader class is getting booted by web 2.0 direct democracy just like royalty and bourgeoisie got booted in previous centuries , government by the people for the people ,death to the parasites
Crikey, there’s a lot of very poorly informed and some badly misinformed folk posting here on this thread.
“BTW, the most innovated advance internet company in world was hacked by a developing country is very hard to swallow.” …. Posted by: simpletnk | 01/25/10 | 9:45 pm
Whilst it may be so of China, that they are a developing country, and especially so in the material capitalistic sense of the word, it is a common mistake to make, to not realise that they are intelligently most innovatively advanced, and most especially so whenever internetworking inscrutably.
galadiman – point is, “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” and Hil lives in a really big glass house (-: Remarkable job? Antagonizing a country that we owe billions to for essentially doing the same thing she did/does?