The USA continues to increase efforts on countering China’s intelligence activities in America. So, on August 14, US Department of Justice published a statement on detention of two US Navy sailors of Chinese origin. According to the press announcement, machinist’s mate P. Wei served at Naval Base San Diego, California, which is the home of the Pacific Fleet. He was accused of alleged sharing data on the location of ships and technical documentation with a Chinese intelligence officer. The other sailor T. Zhao was accused of transmitting information on multilateral exercises in Asia-Pacific Region, radio detection and ranging equipment in Japan. Conspicuous is the fact that, according to materials published in the media, a few days earlier Assistant Secretary of Defense Ely Ratner spoke with PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs Director-General Yang Tao. The subject of the conversation was presented extremely concisely. Thus, the parties allegedly discussed relations in the field of defense and regional security. Ratner emphasized the importance of maintaining communication channels between the military of the two countries. Surely the above-mentioned detentions were also touched upon. Besides, the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee chaired by Rep. J. Comer has recently opened an investigation into an attack on email accounts of a group of senior US officials in May. The heads of the State and Commerce departments were asked for staff briefings on this matter. We see that the pressure from Washington on Beijing is but intensifying on all fronts. China’s government as always provides no comments over the incidents the US gave coverage to. America’s top officials, in turn, pull no punches and give China public charges. It is also important to note that the US is increasingly discovering China’s ‘spies’ on its territory. The more so for the cybersphere where after each specific incident China is directly pointed by the US as the main initiator of the hacking operations. It can be assumed that the number of discovered China’s ‘spies’ will keep growing in the future, Beijing still remaining silent.
We don’t hear about it because we don’t report our own attacks, lol. China reports on US cyberattacks fairly regularly.
Yes but the internet is made of more than just US media. China might report on them, Russia and North Korea also, but these three are the most well known state actor APTs encountered on computer networks all over the world, so it makes sense that they would throw shade in retaliation for being called out for their attacks. Meanwhile all the European tech companies, ones not bound by US law who are keen to report negatively on the US three letter agencies, none of them ever have much to report on US cyber actions. They don’t find anything.
I’m sure the US definitely does conduct cyber warfare, however they’re a far cry away from China in the level that they do. The US are incredibly surgical and don’t get caught, in part by focusing on their target. Meanwhile we have Russia hacking the Sochi Winter Olympics and North Korea stealing billions from banks. China is at least a little different, they assist businesses to hack on their behalf, stealing patents and technology. A lighter shade of black hat hacking, perhaps, but still cyber crime.
The US seem to generally conduct cyber warfare, while China, Russia and North Korea also conduct cyber crime.
Edit: Oh wait, of course, the US did Stuxnet - the virus which attacked Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and then later many other computers over the world. However again, that was more warfare based. The goal was to inhibit Iran’s nuclear capabilities as a military target, rather than anything commercial.