FBI again makes groundless ‘Chinese hackers’ claim; Washington urged to stop smearing China

The FBI made its groundless claim about "Chinese hackers" again on Thursday only days after China released a report on the Volt Typhoon falsehood. Experts urged the US to refrain from arbitrarily fabricating evidence to frame China, and also stressed the importance of China continuing to debunk the baseless accusations made by the US.

According to Reuters, FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Thursday that Chinese government-linked "hackers" have burrowed into US critical infrastructure, and are waiting "for just the right moment to deal a devastating blow."

Wray also said that Volt Typhoon has successfully gained access to numerous US' companies in telecommunications, energy, water and other critical sectors, with 23 pipeline operators targeted.

The groundless smear made by the US and its allies of China conducting cyberattacks is not new. In May 2023, the Five Eyes issued a joint cybersecurity advisory, claiming that they had discovered a cluster of activity of interest associated with a "China state-sponsored cyber actor," known as Volt Typhoon, and these activities "affected networks across US critical infrastructure sectors." Microsoft on the same day claimed that the Volt Typhoon is a state-sponsored actor based in China that typically focuses on espionage and information gathering.

The smears were strongly refuted by China as the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center on Monday released a report disclosing that Volt Typhoon is actually a ransomware cybercriminal group that calls itself the "Dark Power" and is not sponsored by any state or region.

The report also claimed that by labelling Volt Typhoon as a China-sponsored actor, the US was aiming to "kill two birds with one stone" - hyping the "China threat" rhetoric and cheating funding from the US Congress and taxpayers.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told a regular press conference on Monday that there are signs that in order to receive more congressional budgets and government contracts, the US intelligence community and cybersecurity companies have been secretly collaborating to piece together false evidence and spread disinformation about so-called Chinese government's support for cyberattacks against the US.

"It's no secret that the US is the world's largest source of cyberattacks and the biggest threat to cybersecurity," the spokesperson said. Some in the US have been using the origin-tracing of cyberattacks as a tool to hit and frame China, claiming the US to be the victim while it's the other way round, and politicizing cybersecurity issues. "What they have done seriously harms China's lawful rights and interests, and China urges the US to immediately stop its cyberattacks against China and stop smearing China," Lin noted.

However, it's notable that after China released the report on the Volt Typhoon falsehood, the US side has remained silent. Analysts noted that the US should understand that China's cybersecurity defense technology is becoming increasingly capable of detecting falsehood and countering attacks, and the US should refrain from arbitrarily fabricating evidence to frame China.

Chinese experts also noted that the US' repeated smearing of China serves a clear purpose, which is to cultivate a negative perception toward China in both domestic and international discussions in order to better lay the groundwork for its strategic competition and confrontation with China.

"The US is exaggerating the 'threat of Chinese hackers' in order to rally support from the public, its allies, and even international forces or countries that are unaware of the truth, for the purpose of its strategic competition with China," Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Friday.

By noting that the pathological mentality of the US is aimed at undermining both the internal and external development environment of China, Li emphasized the importance of China continuing to debunk the baseless accusations made by the US, not only to its own people, but also to the public in the US and around the world. "By doing so, the true malicious intentions of the US will be exposed for all to see," Li said.