Home » Opinion » Chinese Views
What lies behind US cyber-slandering of China?
Print Edition
THE United States’ ongoing smear campaign against China is rather sweeping, stretching from real-world fabrications to cyberspace concoctions.
In an unusually ferocious tirade delivered earlier this month at a conservative think tank in Washington, US Vice President Mike Pence once again portrayed China as a cybersecurity threat, groundlessly accusing Beijing of cyberattacks against the United States.
The US has persistently cooked up such charges against China in recent years, regardless of the fact that the US is the unrivaled cyber-superpower, home to the Internet’s founders, most of the core infrastructure and major suppliers of key technologies.
More ironically, it has the world’s largest cyber-intelligence organization and first institutionalized cyberforce and it houses what is widely believed to be the mightiest stronghold of hackers.
The 9-year-old Cyber Command is one of the 10 Unified Combatant Commands of the US Department of Defense, armed with cyber offensive strategies and operating more than 130 mission teams.
Yet just like in the real world, the superpower likes playing victim.
The United States, a cyber-predator that has a notorious record of violating other countries’ interests and rights, keeps claiming that it is prey to attacks launched by other countries.
And it has a rather thick skin. Edward Snowden’s eye-popping revelations about US bugging project PRISM, which targeted leaders even of America’s allies, WikiLeaks’ exposure of the Central Intelligence Agency’s capability to hack into smart devices worldwide, and the havoc wreaked by the WannaCry ransomware, which exploited leaked US hacking tools, have all failed to shame Washington into stopping its hypocritical trickery.
What then, is Washington up to?
It is not hard to see that there are at least two ulterior motives behind the obsession with demonizing China in cyberspace.
First, by inflating security threats from other countries, Washington is attempting to shift worldwide attention away from its own capacity and bullying history, and, more importantly, to make excuses for a further cyberspace military buildup.
Second, by slandering Chinese enterprises and their products, like Huawei smart phones and DJI drones, Washington contrives to stir up sinophobia in other countries to browbeat or hoodwink them into blocking Chinese trade and saving the market for US companies.
Cyberspace is tremendously complicated, permeated with various new challenges. All parties must be responsible and constructive in coordinated efforts and joint governance.
China, itself a victim of attacks, has made its stance on cybersecurity clear.
The Chinese government does not engage in cyber-theft of commercial secretes, nor does it encourage or support anybody doing it.
And it is ready to work with the international community to curb hacking attacks and other criminal activities in cyberspace.
From cooperating against cybercrime to sharing information, China has demonstrated ample good faith in promoting in security cooperation with the United States. For the sake of all countries sharing cyberspace, it is time for Washington to stop throwing around the blame and start engaging in some genuine teamwork.
The author is a Xinhua writer.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
