TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China tacitly acknowledged its role in cyberattacks on US infrastructure, indicating the attacks resulted from increasing American support for Taiwan, according to a WSJ report.
Dubbed “Volt Typhoon,” China for years has reportedly been hacking into US computer networks, targeting locations such as ports, water utilities, and airports. The report said attacks against civilian infrastructure are among the new administration's top security threats.
In a closed-door meeting in Geneva last December, Chinese officials reportedly acknowledged the attacks, linking them to increasing US policy support for Taiwan, people familiar with the matter said. A former US official familiar with the meeting said, “The American delegation in the room interpreted it as a tacit admission and a warning to the US about Taiwan.”
The report said that Wang Lei, a top Chinese cyber official at the meeting, indicated the cyberattacks resulted from US military backing of Taiwan, according to American officials familiar with the conversation.
The Chinese officials did not state that Beijing was responsible for the hacking. The report said US officials “perceived the comments as confirmation of Beijing’s role and was intended to scare the US from involving itself if a conflict erupts in the Taiwan Strait.”
The Biden White House and the Trump transition team were both briefed about the meeting, according to the report.
The Trump administration has announced plans to dismiss cybersecurity workers in sweeping job cuts, leading to lawmakers and intelligence officials’ concerns that the US would become weak in cyber defenses. Last week, Trump abruptly fired the National Security Agency chief and top officials in a national security purge against those considered disloyal to him.
The Geneva summit also brought up concerns about Chinese intrusions into US telecommunications networks, dubbed “Salt Typhoon,” which enabled hackers to spy on the unencrypted calls and texts of US government officials. The report noted telecom intrusions “are akin to traditional cyber espionage that the US also conducts against adversaries.”
However, the US had previously stressed that it would view hacking into civilian critical infrastructure by Volt Typhoon as an unacceptable provocation and even an act of war.
According to Dakota Cary, a China researcher at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, “The tacit admission is significant, because it may reflect a view in Beijing that the likeliest military conflict with the US would be over Taiwan and that a more direct signal about the stakes of involvement needed to be sent to the Trump administration.”
