China yesterday called the US arrogant and selfish after two Chinese citizens were charged with stealing US trade secrets and other sensitive information on behalf of Beijing’s main intelligence agency.
“The Chinese government has never participated in or supported anyone in stealing trade secrets in any way,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said.
She accused the US of undermining the development of other countries to defend its own hegemony.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“The US is a world superpower, and it’s quite arrogant and selfish,” she told a regular media briefing.
The US Department of Justice on Thursday announced the indictment of Chinese nationals Zhu Hua (朱華) and Zhang Shilong (張士龍) for allegedly carrying out an extensive cyberespionage campaign against US government agencies and major corporations.
Besides the alleged US infiltration, Zhu and Zhang have also been accused of breaching computers linked to companies in at least 11 other countries, including Japan, the UK and India.
More than 90 percent of the department’s economic espionage cases over the past seven years involve China and more than two-thirds of trade secrets cases are connected to the country, US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said.
“China’s state-sponsored actors are the most active perpetrators of economic espionage,” FBI Director Chris Wray said in announcing the case. “While we welcome fair competition, we cannot and will not tolerate illegal hacking, stealing or cheating.”
“They [the US] believe that a lie repeated a 1,000 times will become the truth, but I want to tell them that a lie is still a lie even after it has been repeated 10,000 times,” Hua said.
In a written statement issued earlier yesterday, she said that the US was “fabricating facts.”
The indictment says that the pair worked for Tianjin, China-based Huaying Haitai Science and Technology Development Co (天津華盈海泰科技發展) and acted in association with the Chinese Ministry of State Security’s bureau in the northeastern port city.
A public company registry showed that the firm’s work includes the development of computer software, consulting and business related to a variety of technical equipment.
The mere announcement of charges is likely to affect public perception of China, said James Gong (龔鈺), a cybersecurity senior associate at the Herbert Smith Freehills law firm in Beijing.
“The allegation itself will give rise to some suspicion, at least, among the international public, that these hacking activities are actually supported by the Chinese state,” he said.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft