LOS ANGELES.–Uploading a tranche of Chinese hacked documents on the website Github, the U.S. government is on high alert for illicit Chinese cyber-espionage, exposing the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] busy trying to steal U.S. secrets and those of the U.K. and India. Over 570 files were pilfered by iSoon, a contractor with the CCP, working closely with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security. No one knows the extent of the data breach, much like the massive breach of Defense Department security by Booz-Allen-Hamilton contractor Edward Snowden who fled to Hong Kong in 2013 then Russia to elude the FBI and CIA. “We have every reason to believe this is the authentic data of a contactor supporting global and domestic cyber-espionage operations out of China,” cyber-security expert John Hulquist told the Washington Post. On Feb. 4, 2023 the Pentagon shout down a Chinese spy balloon.
Chinese authorities said it was investigating the leak from iSoon, a private CCP contractor, confirming that the hacked files came from its company. Associated Press reported that some 20 hacking targets were involved ranging from the U.S., U.K., India, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia. Government files were hacked together with private telecommunications fims, maily phone companies. Hackers apparently exploited cyber-security weakness in Microsoft and Google software, exposing the extent of the breach. U.S. lawmakers already have suspicion of China and related companies snooping around to steal U.S. patents, copyrights and other protected legal files. Today’s cyber-security breach is bound to escalate tensions between the U.S. and Peoples Republic of China [PRC], already pushing 81-year-old President Joe Biden to the point of war.
FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed last year that China ran “the biggest hacking program in the world,” coming as no surprise to anyone following Chinese activity. With China going through an economic downturn, especially with the collapse of its overbuilt commercial real estate sector, it’s stepped up its cyber-espionage trying to gain any advantage possible in world economic markets. Chinese authorities typically deny that any hacking activities are sanctioned by the CCP, only part of renegade groups something outlawed by the PRC. China has “stolen more of the personal and corporate data than every nation, big or small, combined,” adding to the growing hostility on Capitol Hill. Many of Biden’s war hawk friends in Congress look to confront China on the battlefield. Biden confirmed Sept. 19, 2022 that he would commit U.S. troops to defend Taiwan from a Beijing takeover.
Whatever the security breach means, Biden has ratcheted up tensions between the PRC and the United States, leading to the most tense relations between Beijing and Washington since the 1949 Maoist Revolution. Whatever doors the late Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and President Richard Nixon opened with China in 1973, Biden looks to shut the door under his presidency. Biden and many of his war hawk backers in Congress pit the U.S. against the PRC, often saying the China, not the Russian Federation, is the biggest threat to U.S. national security. With Biden currently in a proxy war in Ukraine with the Kremlin, the prospects of war with the PRC has escalated. Giving Biden four more years could almost certainly lead to a military confrontation with the PRC. Cyber-espionage is only one aspect of the deteriorated state of U.S.-Chinese relations.
Chinese President Xi Jinping wasn’t happy with Biden when he ordered the shoot-down of the Chinese spy balloon Feb. 4, 2023. Xi denied any espionage with the school bus-sized spy balloon that descended from Canada and crossed the U.S. taking in data from U.S. military bases until Biden ordered it shot down over the South Carolina coast. Wray admitted that with the current pace of Chinese cyber-espionage, it’s difficult for the U.S. to keep up with spying activities. U.S. industry is so dependent on Chinese manufacturing that it’s difficult for the government to impose the kind of sanctions Biden did on Russia. Biden plans to slap Russia with more punitive economic sanctions today over the death of jailed Russian dissident Alexi Navalny. Because of U.S. sanctions and attacks in Ukraine on the Kremlin, Xi has entered into a close military, economic and strategic alliance with Moscow.
Under Biden’s leadership, the U.S. finds itself spread too thin in Russia, Middle East and certainly China. “If each one of the FBI’s cyber-agents and intelligence analysts focused exclusively on the China threat, China’s hackers would still outnumber FBI cyber-personnel by at least 50 to 1,” Wray told lawmakers last month. Biden finds himself caught in a sticky wicket, unable to proceed on normal national security because he’s tie the Pentagon up in a pitched battle in Ukraine with the Kremlin. Biden has driven Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping into a close economic, military and strategic alliance. Any sanction Biden slaps on the Kremlin, Xi takes it personally in Beijing. Biden has left the U.S. vulnerable to Chinese cyper-attacks because he’s engaged in a reckless, wasteful proxy war with the Kremlin, wrecking U.S.-Russian relations.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
