Daily commentary about China by TIME correspondents.

China Hacks the World, er, Maybe

A couple of reports out of Canada and the U.K. allege that a huge hacking ring that may or may not be based in China penetrated thousands of computers around the world.  This story has been going on for a while and is routinely denied by the Chinese authorities. These reports don't have any kind of a smoking gun tying the operation to China and they do acknowledge that other governments undoubtedly do the same thing. As I pointed out in a story a while back, though, the scale and resources China has devoted to this area appear to significantly exceed other nations.

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  • 1

    How come China down-graded itself to such a low level of CIA, even though hacking is easier than sending a spy ship to other's door.

  • 2

    Since Dalai Lama is a citizen of Canada, nothing good should come out of Canada. So China should discount this report and consider her effort in infiltrating other countries is still a secret. UK is such a small country, with population just a small fraction of China, and can be discounted easily.

    Rest assured that the ancient Chinese secret is still a secret.

  • 3

    Mr Elegant, I would like to speak to you if you would email me please at andrea.hunt@echinacities.com I would appreciate it. Thanks, Andrea

  • 4

    The threatening fact is the Chinese hacked thousands of Western's computer, operate their webcam silently, take snap shots in their bedroom, removed their sensitive document including porn movies and pictures.
    This is the cyber war against the West!

  • 5

    Well, the Canadians and Britons who published this report were contractors of Dalai. Any serious reader will question the influence of their funding source on the quality of their report.

    I have no evidence to dispute their conclusion, but common sense tells me that China is probably not the only one doing this, and may not even be the more active ones doing this. I am pretty sure China's cyberspying technologies are not a match to some other more technologically-sophisticated countries.

    So why publish those half-truth reports? Because those people cannot hold back at any chance of bash China and the Chinese people, and they are more than glad to plant seeds of hatred in people's mind.

  • 6

    When I heard the news, I thought it was funny, especially for the part of spying the Dalai Lama's office. Where is the office, in the mountains of India? I thought that place was still lacking of infrastructures for a decent network. Please excuse for my ignorance. Besides, I have no impression that the Dalai Lama is the enemy number 1 of the state that has to be seriously dealt with.

    Are you sure that these Canadians are not making some false claims in order to get world recognition and government money?

  • 7

    The "jumpingflea":

    Is condemning Dalai you Commies' everyday pattering? Someday when you were suffering from a constipation, should you damn Dalai first?

  • 9

    "An Investigation Report on the CCP's Foreign Propaganda System Making Ideology Infiltration and Spreading Hatred and Lies Among the International Communities":

    http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/en/index2.php?option=content&task=view&id=185&pop=1&page=0

  • 10

    Well, thousands of netizens are online right now, cheering on the hackers, and boasting about China's hacking prowess.

    Anyway, who else would hack the Dalai Lama, lol. Only the CCP is afraid of one elderly monk.

  • 11

    Ha, Ha. May be somebody was wondering what kind of person DL really is behind closed door.

  • 12

    It reminds me of a Falun Gong practitioner in Toronto, who went to police claiming that he had been harassed by Chinese Consulate people.

  • 13

    "The Evolution of Espionage: Beijing's Red Spider Web":

    http://www.jamestown.org/china_brief/article.php?articleid=2374310

  • 14

    The CCP will steal what they want through internet spies, at the same time they send the espionages in person infiltrating other countries, such as the "Canadian five-jiao" jumping here.

  • 15

    Sorry! the right link for "The Evolution of Espionage: Beijing's Red Spider Web" is:

    http://www.jamestown.org/programs/chinabrief/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=5060&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=168&no_cache=1

  • 16

    China should come out and deny all of these accusations strongly so that people can see what kind of country China really is. And China should counter attack by claiming that the US has been hacking Chinese computer for centuries, however, due to the advance technology China possesses, and the diligence of the PLA, US has failed in every attempt. This will clearly show the world how China can deal with information about China.

  • 17

    I heard it from BNN, Canadian version of CNBC, that the shameless CCP bused thousands of villagers to the shinning shopping malls in cities to encourage them to buy white goods at subsidized price.
    On top of torture and political oppression, this is the latest trick they have to stay in power. What will they come up next? Shameless, shameless.

  • 18

    conscienceinchina:

    Your silly label of "commie" means nothing to me. I don't care if the lama were still the godking in Tibet today, as I would not be among the suffering. Be assured, he has never caused me any bodily discomfort in any case.

    I only pointed out that the "vast Chinese cyberspy network" is a phony issue. I have no desire to persuade you, because you probably won't learn until the ballooning ball of China hated blow up in your ass.

    Is condemning Dalai you Commies' everyday pattering? Someday when you were suffering from a constipation, should you damn Dalai first?

  • 19

    Another related story:

    "Helen Liu has strong links with Chinese army"

    http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25267130-601,00.html#

  • 20

    To the “jumpingflea”:

    1. “Well, the Canadians and Britons who published this report were contractors of Dalai”. “I have no evidence to dispute their conclusion”(the jumpingflea says)

    ---You are bashing your mouth. Would a “serious reader” incriminate someone while “have no evidence”?

    2. “but common sense tells me that China is probably not the only one doing this…”(the jumping flea says)

    ---Your subtext is “whose buttocks are clean?”, a locution of the CCP when they face the accusing particularly from the west. the extensible words are: “China is probably not the only one doing” stealing, corruption, repressing, persecuting, killing, massacring…etc.

    3. “I am pretty sure China's cyberspying technologies are not a match to some other more technologically-sophisticated countries.”(the jumping flea says)

    ---Did you mean “China is far less doing enough”?

    4. “Because those people cannot hold back at any chance of bash China and the Chinese people, and they are more than glad to plant seeds of hatred in people's mind.”(the jumping flea says)

    ---Replacing concepts covertly (偷换概念) is really a malicious trick frequently used by the commies and their jackals. So they call the democracy activists, dissidents, and western justicial countries “anti-china/Chinese force/elements(反华势力/分子)”, instead of “anti-autocracy or CCP”, then instigate the Chinese “sh*t youths(粪青)” to attack them. In this aspect all Chinese have been hijacked as the dictators' shield, and the extreme nationalism is necessary for the totalitarianism.

    5. “I only pointed out that the "vast Chinese cyberspy network" is a phony issue. I have no desire to persuade you, because you probably won't learn until the ballooning ball of China hated blow up in your ass.” (the jumping flea say)

    ---You still “have no evidence” to “point out” it's “a phony issue”, except your dirty mouth which has committed on me and some else by the “propaganda pandas”, while ignoring all the witnesses the articles above witnessing.

    ---------------------------------------------------------

    Attached:
    jumpingflea Says:
    Monday, March 30, 2009 at 11:40 am

    Well, the Canadians and Britons who published this report were contractors of Dalai. Any serious reader will question the influence of their funding source on the quality of their report.

    I have no evidence to dispute their conclusion, but common sense tells me that China is probably not the only one doing this, and may not even be the more active ones doing this. I am pretty sure China's cyberspying technologies are not a match to some other more technologically-sophisticated countries.

    So why publish those half-truth reports? Because those people cannot hold back at any chance of bash China and the Chinese people, and they are more than glad to plant seeds of hatred in people's mind.

    jumpingflea Says:
    Wednesday, April 1, 2009 at 11:31 am

    conscienceinchina:

    Your silly label of "commie" means nothing to me. I don't care if the lama were still the godking in Tibet today, as I would not be among the suffering. Be assured, he has never caused me any bodily discomfort in any case.

    I only pointed out that the "vast Chinese cyberspy network" is a phony issue. I have no desire to persuade you, because you probably won't learn until the ballooning ball of China hated blow up in your ass.

  • 21

    jumpingflea: "I have no evidence to dispute their conclusion, but common sense tells me that China is probably not the only one doing this, and may not even be the more active ones doing this." And "I only pointed out that the "vast Chinese cyberspy network" is a phony issue."

    Hmm... since you admitted that China is doing it, and it is also a phony issue. Therefore, China is either phony, or China is doing phony things, or China is doing things in a phony way. China must be the land of phonies.

  • 22

    Look, the fact that China participated in a shady game does not warrant that it being single out as The Demon. Let's face it, the core accusation is spying. Are you serious that China has an international monopoly on spying?

    This why this is a phony issue, and the lama-funded researchers published a half-truth report to grab the headlines and to help spread their China hatred.

  • 23

    To the “jumpingflea”:

    Seems you have never read the lines I wrote for you, or maybe you have ignored them for your purpose, since there are enough to smash all your “China hatred” theories.

    Is an evil-coverer a real patriot, or an evil-discloser? The answer is so obvious that even it's boring to repeat it. All I have been targeting are the evils and crimes committed by the dictators and their accomplices, and somewhat Chinese “inferior-root-quality (劣根性)” mostly caused by the thousands-of-years' feudal rules. I am living in China and suffering from what Chinese people are suffering, and I have witnessed some much misery falling on Chinese people. I am loving and commiserating them so as to risk offending and angering the communist regime that has been doing everything they can do to suppress any dissents. Maybe someday the notorious “state security”, the Chinese version of “KGB”, will sooner find me out and throw me into their dark cages which have persecuted and tortured and killed an enormous amount of “Chinese conscience”, leaving only your kind of “patriots” they need.

    If my patience and frankness were not enough and effective to you, I would have to begin envisaging what you really want to do here.

    A valuable essay for you:

    “Glossing-over-patriotic-theory(遮羞爱国论)”

    http://blog.ifeng.com/article/1545368.html

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    Attached:

    jumpingflea Says:
    Wednesday, April 1, 2009 at 8:09 pm
    Look, the fact that China participated in a shady game does not warrant that it being single out as The Demon. Let's face it, the core accusation is spying. Are you serious that China has an international monopoly on spying?

    This why this is a phony issue, and the lama-funded researchers published a half-truth report to grab the headlines and to help spread their China hatred.

  • 24

    Censoring me?

  • 25

    Oh! Gosh!

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