November 28:
According to a message sent to Washington from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing a “Chinese contact” revealed to American sources that the Politburo, the governing body of China's Communist Party, had approved the electronic intrusion into Google disclosed last January. The hack was "part of a coordinated campaign of computer sabotage carried out by government operatives, private security experts and internet outlaws recruited by the Chinese government," according to the New York Times. Google wasn't the only company targeted by the attack, which focused on 20 large companies, CBS News reports.
November 29:
Hong Kong’s official Zhongguo Tongxun She reports that according to Zhang Zhaozhong, a professor at China’s National Defense University, if hostilities break out on the Korean Peninsula, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will cross the border and establish a “buffer zone” 20 to 30 km inside the DPRK to keep refugees in the country but that it would withdraw PLA troops when the situation stabilizes. The state-controlled paper called the plan “a preventive measure to protect stability” and that Chinese experts were prepared for a targeted attack by U.S. and South Korean forces on North Korea’s strategic assets that “kept the duration of the military operations to under 20 minutes.”
November 30:
Britain’s The Guardian reports that last February, U.S. Ambassador to South Korea, Kathleen Stephens, sent diplomatic cables to Washington stating that South Korea's vice-foreign minister, Chun Yung-wo, was told by two senior Chinese officials that: “Sophisticated Chinese officials…believed Korea should be unified under ROK control [and] were ready to ‘face the new reality’ that the DPRK now had little value to China as a buffer state – a view that since North Korea's 2006 nuclear test had reportedly gained traction among senior PRC leaders.” Chun said Beijing would be comfortable with a reunified Korea controlled by Seoul and anchored to the U.S. in a 'benign alliance' – as long as Korea was not hostile towards China. Tremendous trade and labor-export opportunities for Chinese companies, Chun said, would also help salve Chinese concerns about a reunified Korea. In response to these statements, The Guardian also reported that Chinese officials based in Europe said that Beijing supports the “independent and peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula in the long term.”
December 1:
China's Ministry of Public Security has arrested hundreds of hackers and closed a number of hacker-training websites in a recent crackdown on domestic cyber attacks, but said that “hei ke” or “black guest” activity remains a severe problem. The ministry's website posted an announcement saying that of December 1, authorities had arrested 460 hackers, resolved 180 cases of computer crime, and closed 14 websites providing hacking software or training. Many Chinese hackers learn from others in Internet forums, collaborate informally to assemble and distribute malicious programs that steal account passwords, financial information and other potentially valuable data. Hacking incidents targeting Chinese public security offices increased by 80% a year in “recent years.” Hacking “seriously infringes on the legal rights and interests of the general public and causes great damage to national Internet and information security,” the statement said according to the Wall Street Journal.
[Editor’s Note: The announcement only addressed hacking that originated in China and targeted Chinese victims – not accusations that government-backed hackers have attacked websites and networks of foreign companies and governments. Last month, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) published an annual report saying that Huawei Technologies Ltd illicitly redirected large volumes of Internet traffic, including traffic to branches of the U.S. armed services, the U.S. Senate, and companies such as Microsoft Corp., through servers in China. The report noted “persistent reports” about China's “use of malicious computer activities.” (Disclosure: The editor worked as a professional analyst at the USCC from August 2003 to December 2005.)]
