By Li Jiabao
Another America’s bad behavior in cyberspace has recently been revealed. An investigation report by relevant Chinese institutes and enterprises shows that offices affiliated with the US National Security Agency (NSA) have used 41 cyberattack weapons and devices to steal data on core technologies from China’s Northwestern Polytechnical University over 1,000 times. The report, filled with clear details, complete chains and solid evidence, presents to the world an undeniable fact that the US has been launching vicious cyberattacks against China for years.
For many years, the US has been conducting massive, organized and indiscriminate cyber theft, monitoring and attack against foreign governments, enterprises and individuals against the basic principles of international law and relations. From PRISM, Irritant Horn, and Stellar Wind, to Bvp47, Hive, and the quantum attack system, it is an open secret that the US is the master hand behind a series of transnational cybersecurity events.
America has reached its evil hands to not only the so-called strategic rivals, but also its allies and partners. A report released by a Chinese Internet company this year showed that in the past decade and more, NSA has used cyber weapons to attack 403 online targets in 47 countries and regions, including China, Britain, Germany, France, Poland, Japan, India, ROK, UAE, South Africa, and Brazil.
What’s alarming is that the US has spared no effort in promoting cyberspace militarization in recent years. The pentagon’s Cyber Strategy report has replaced “proactive defense” with the more aggressive “defense forward”, and the US military is strongly developing aggressive cyberattack forces, accelerating the transformation of cyber weapons toward real combat, and building a systematic cyberattack platform and standardized cyber arsenal.
Cyberattack is a common threat to the whole world, just as preserving cybersecurity is the international community’s common responsibility. In face of the stern and complex cybersecurity situation today, there are more rational voices protesting cyberbullying and calling for more stringent cyberspace governance.
The Internet technology should be a treasure that benefits humanity rather than a tool to pursue hegemony, yet the US, in possession of the world’s most powerful Internet technologies, has come to be known as a country of hackers, tapping, and theft, all of which can be attributed to its engrained hegemonistic thinking. Leveraging its technological advantage, the US seeks a kind of “one-way information transparency” with other countries and uses cyberattack as a tool to suppress and contain them. All these actions have put it on the opposite side of global cybersecurity and technological development.
Preserving cybersecurity is equivalent to preserving the common security of all countries rather than the absolute security of any one. Cyberbullying will never bring absolute security, and any attempt at that by infringing upon other countries’ cyber sovereignty and information security is a typical practice of double standards and zero-sum thinking, which may easily lead to a cyber arms race and jeopardize global strategic stability. China has always urged all countries to join hands in building a community of shared cyber security and preserving such security. It emphasized that double standards should have no place in safeguarding cybersecurity; we must never accept that one country is secure but others are not, much less seeking the so-called absolute security of some at the price of others.
Dialogue and cooperation should be advocated, instead of exclusiveness and confrontation in the field of cyberspace on the basis of mutual respect, trust, and benefits. It’s ironic that the US, being so adept at cyber theft and attack, titles itself as the guard of cyber security, not only repeatedly flinging mud at China on cybersecurity issues, but also egging and coercing other countries to join its so-called Clean Network program with a view to squeezing Chinese enterprises out of the cyber market. In the meantime, it is thinking of creating a so-called Alliance for the Future of the Internet – an old trick of forming cliques and creating confrontation and conflict – to obstruct international cooperation in cyberspace.
As a main victim of cyberattacks, China resolutely opposes and combats cyberattacks of any form and calls for establishing a multilateral, democratic, and transparent global Internet governance system, and jointly building a community of shared cybersecurity.
Editor's note: Originally published on haiwainet.cn, this article is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information and opinions in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
