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According to China and cybersecurity experts, China sees social media networks as tools of cyber warfare and America does not have the defense to fight China in the long run.
According to People’s Liberation Army writings analyzed by the Heritage Foundation’s Dean Cheng, who is knowledgeable on Chinese military capabilities, targets of Beijing’s sophisticated cyberwarfare techniques include national and military decision-makers, as well as financial, energy and transportation networks.
Mr. Cheng and Winnona DeSombre, a cyberstate management expert at the Atlantic Council, raised the alarm about China’s cyberwarfare capabilities in their statements to the US-China and Economic Security Review Commission.
Mr. Cheng said his work in what he called China’s ‘three wars’ consisting of psychological warfare, public warfare and legal warfare poses a threat in cyberspace. China’s application of integrated networking and electronic warfare includes more than computers, and can extend to civilian information systems and try to wreak havoc even in peacetime.
“It’s not just zeros and ones, it’s not just computers, it’s the human element of interpreting what’s on the screen,” Mr. Cheng said. “Do you believe the emails on your screen? Do you believe that your email is going to the right place and that tweeting, Instagram, TikTok, on the contrary, is actually a reflection of reality?”
China’s ability to blur the lines between reality and propaganda isn’t the only challenge America faces in cyberspace.
Ms DeSombre told the commission, “Based on industry observations, the United States currently does not have adequate cyber defence, personnel, supply chain security or international, technical and standards leadership in cyberspace to rival China in the long term.” “Moreover, considering how stealthy cyberspace is as a field, China’s capabilities probably far exceed the findings I’ve compiled here.
DeSombre, a former security engineer at Google, said China’s military-civilian cohesion policies, which mandate cooperation with academic and institutional institutions, will enable them to overcome such problems in the short term, while both China and the United States are short of staff.
He said America is not well-equipped, especially because of backlogs and policies that discourage skilled professionals from entering government service.
The alerts from Chinese experts are intended to inform congressional action on national security and economic policy. The US China and Economic Security Review Commission was created by Congress in 2000 and publishes annual reports containing its recommendations. Mr. Cheng and Ms. DeSombre testified to commissioners selected by the House and Senate leadership.
At Thursday’s hearing, the commission also received testimony from experts who warned that China is developing its cyber-espionage capabilities. Kelli Vanderlee, senior manager at Mandiant Threat Intelligence, said the cybersecurity firm believes China’s technical trade craft has steadily evolved since 2016 to become more stealthy and more agile.
“We believe that in 2020 and 2021, Chinese cyberespionage activity has a higher tolerance for risk and is less constrained by norms or diplomatic pressures,” Ms Vanderlee said in her written statement.
According to Ms. DeSombre, one reason diplomatic pressure doesn’t work perfectly to punish China is because America failed to punish after naming the communist country and embarrassing it for bad deeds.
“China no longer cares if her name is said, if no costs are imposed later on,” Ms DeSombre told the commission. “And the current enforcement environment isn’t as effective as we’d like it to be, especially when it comes to sanctioning individual PLA officers and the like.”
Ms. DeSombre suggested that America cooperate more with its allies in developing international standards to support a free and open internet to advance American values in information.
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