China accelerating computer espionage attacks on US, claims advisory panel

CHINA has accelerated computer espionage attacks on the US government, defence contractors and American businesses, a US congressional advisory panel said yesterday.

The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission also said in its annual report to lawmakers that aggressive Chinese space programmes were allowing Beijing to more effectively target US military forces.

“China is stealing vast amounts of sensitive information from US computer networks,” said Larry Wortzel, chairman of the commission set up by Congress in 2000.

The commission of six Democrats and six Republicans said in the unanimously approved report that China’s massive military modernisation and its “impressive but disturbing” space and computer warfare capabilities “suggest China is intent on expanding its sphere of control even at the expense of its Asian neighbours and the United States”.

The commission recommended that lawmakers provide money for US government programmes that would monitor and protect computer networks.

Messages left with the Chinese Embassy in Washington were not immediately returned. But officials in Beijing have responded to past reports of this kind by saying that China does not try to undermine other countries’ interests and seeks strong ties with the US.

The report comes two months before US president-elect Barack Obama takes office. The Democratic Obama administration will probably continue the Republican Bush administration’s efforts to work with and encourage China, a veto-holding member of the UN Security Council that the US needs in nuclear confrontations with Iran and North Korea.

During the campaign for president, then-candidate Obama said that “China is rising, and it is not going away”, adding that Beijing is “neither our enemy nor our friend; they’re competitors”.

In the commission’s report, military strategist Wang Huacheng is quoted as calling US dependence on space assets and information technology its “soft ribs”. China’s space programme is “steadily increasing the vulnerability of US assets”, the report said.

For instance, improvements in satellite imagery allow China to locate US carrier battle groups more accurately, faster and from further away.

The commission also criticised China for violating commitments to avoid trade-distorting measures.

It recommended Congress enact legislation to respond to China’s currency manipulation and create enforceable disclosure requirements on investments in the US for foreign sovereign wealth funds and other foreign state-controlled companies.