US fouling cyberspace with its malevolent actions: China Daily editorial

Following the release of a report by the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and the cyber security company 360 on the results of investigations into thousands of malicious cyberattacks on China's Northwestern Polytechnical University, China's Foreign Ministry lodged solemn representations with the US embassy on Sunday.

The ministry strongly condemned the actions of the Tailored Access Operations unit affiliated with the US National Security Agency, which was identified as being responsible for the attacks, saying that the cyberattacks seriously violated the integrity of sensitive research programs.

It seems that the TAO is picky in selecting its targets, choosing the most valuable targets for its hacking. As one of the seven universities engaged in defense-related technology research, the NPU has made enormous achievements in aerospace, astronautics, and ocean voyage technologies. It produced the nation's first small-scale unmanned aerial vehicle, first ground effect vehicle and first aerospace airborne computer, and it is participating in the nation's manned space travel and lunar probe projects.

With China's comprehensive technological capabilities rapidly advancing, "technological nationalism" has been on the rise in the US, and it is the NPU's excellent performance in the high-tech sector that has brought it to the attention of the TAO.

Rather than taking China's growth as an opportunity for cooperation, the US perceives it as a grave challenge to its tech hegemony. Its zero-sum mentality has therefore prompted the US to strike at China's high-tech R&D in any way it can in an attempt to suppress and arrest China's technological progress.

To this end, the US has also introduced one long-arm law after another targeting Chinese tech companies in various sectors, and sought to reshape the global supply chains to exclude Chinese enterprises. In doing so, the US has dealt damaging blows to global technological cooperation and supply chains.

Ironically, while claiming it is acting to ensure a "clean network", it is the dirty deeds of the US that are fouling cyberspace. It is the US that has repeatedly been caught engaging in hostile and pernicious cyber activities. The Prism Project, Irritant Horn, Stellar Wind, Boundless Informant, Upstream ... the list of malevolent US programs goes on and on.

In direct contrast to the US' all-pervasive surveillance and hacking, China has adopted an open technology strategy and it collaborates with over 160 countries and regions, and is part of more than 200 international organizations and multilateral mechanisms. Guided by the goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind, China also actively participates in global technological innovation governance.

Countries should be alert to the nefarious cyber activities of the US and should join hands to repel the baleful intrusions of the US.