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1st LD-Writethru-China Focus: Chinese media lambaste U.S. hacking allegations
BEIJING, Feb 22, 2013 (Xinhua via COMTEX) --
The Chinese media have been
outraged by allegations from the United States of Chinese hacker
attacks, lambasting the U.S. for its groundless finger-pointing.
The Beijing Daily, a broadsheet newspaper, carried a commentary
in its Friday edition which compared the U.S. accusations to a
move of hegemony in the virtual community.
The commentary came after U.S. cyber security firm Mandiant on
Monday released a report which alleged that a secret Chinese
military unit in Shanghai was behind years of cyber attacks
against U.S. companies.
The report was followed by a wave of Western media criticism of
hacking by China. The Obama Administration was reported to be
considering possible fines and trade actions against China.
In response, the Beijing Daily commentary argued that the U.S.
has always played the victim card. In fact, the U.S. is the source
country of most cyber attacks and the country is responsible for
the majority of computer viruses. Using a Chinese idiom, the
commentary described the U.S. move as "a thief yelling for help to
catch the thief."
The paper further questioned the true purpose hidden behind the
U.S. media trumpeting the "Chinese hacking threat." Their reports
may allow the U.S. administration greater leeway in carrying out
aggressive cyber attacks, and the media fanfare might serve the
purpose of wooing parliament's budget approval and public support,
read the commentary.
On Thursday, the Hong Kong-based newspaper Wenweipo expressed
similar concerns over "Chinese hacking threat" allegations. The
paper said it aims at whipping up public support for the U.S.
government and the military to wage a cyber war, besides the
conventional purpose of containing China as the "China threat"
rhetoric does.
Ever since cyberspace became a new battle field, the American
military has taken the lead to establish cyber headquarters and
recruit numerous hackers to carry out computer virus research and
development and build a cyber war arsenal, Wenweipo said.
The American cyber security force is still expanding. The paper
cited a report in The Washington Post on Jan. 27, which quoted a
U.S. defense department official as saying that the U.S. will
increase the size of its cyber security force fivefold over the
next several years.
The Global Times, a national tabloid, carried an article on
Wednesday calling for China to stand up to the U.S.
finger-pointing, saying silence will only invite more accusations.
The tabloid argued that there are too few reports of China
being hacked by overseas forces, as many of the cases are held
only within government authorities.
Besides, it is always a government spokesperson who does the
complaining on behalf of the Chinese side, while it is an
individual company or interested parties that tell their stories
of being attacked, which makes the U.S. voices heard louder.
The Global Times appealed to relevant technology authorities of
China to refute the American accusations through fact finding
research. It also encouraged victims of cyber attacks sourced to
U.S. IP addresses to tell the world what has happened to them.
Another Global Times commentary said, "We don't believe the
Chinese military is completely unprepared in a cyber war, but we
are convinced that China will never act on the offensive side."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, at a regular press
briefing on Wednesday, said the groundless criticism from the U.S.
is "irresponsible and unprofessional, which will not help to solve
the problem."
People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party
of China, also ran a story Thursday to slam the baseless
accusations.
U.S. hacking accusations lack sufficient evidence, Wu
Chengrong, a computer scholar with the Shanghai-based Fudan
University was quoted as saying by the paper.
A single piece of internal record released by an Internet
company is not enough to locate the sources, let alone without any
data monitored by telecom sectors, he said.
"To verify accurately the source of hacker attack needs
transnational and multi-agency cooperations," Wu said.
Shen Yi, an international relation scholar with the Fudan
University, was quoted by the People's Daily as saying that some
details of the report released by the Mandiant were unauthentic.
"Repeated accusations of 'Chinese hacker attacks' against the
United States reveals the U.S. lack of strategic trust in China
and its anxiety over its national security," Shen said.
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