China's security minister warns of growing cyber threats

A senior Chinese security official has accused certain countries of suppressing China's cyber technology industry and attempting to block its international cooperation in cyberspace, warning that such actions pose the greatest external risk to China's cybersecurity.

State Security Minister Chen Yixin made the remarks in a signed article published on Tuesday in a flagship magazine run by the Cyberspace Administration of China.

Chen criticized countries for forming alliances and monopolizing rules to curb China's international cooperation, accusing them of "exploiting their first-mover advantage to establish cyber hegemony". His article focused largely on the need to strengthen national cybersecurity protections.

He emphasized the importance of guarding against containment and suppression, adding cyberspace has become "a new strategic high ground and battlefield for major powers under conditions of informatization".

"We must firmly oppose certain countries using the internet as a tool to maintain hegemony, and improve mechanisms for counter-sanctions, anti-interference, and counter long-arm jurisdiction," Chen said.

He said maintaining cybersecurity begins with understanding the nature and timing of risks. "The essence of cybersecurity lies in confrontation, and the essence of confrontation is the competition of capabilities on both offensive and defensive ends," he said.

China is at a critical stage of transitioning from a major cyber nation to a strong cyber power, while the world is undergoing "profound changes unseen in a century", with artificial intelligence leading a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, Chen explained.

"The international power structure, development patterns, security landscape, governance framework, and technological paradigms are all undergoing significant changes," he said.

Chen highlighted the need to guard against the risks facing China's cybersecurity, including political infiltration, cyberattacks, espionage and spread of terrorism. Chen further explained how the internet was being used for terrorism, extremism, and separatism. He said extremist forces have long used online platforms — including encrypted communications and the dark web — to spread violent content and recruit followers.

"With global geopolitical conflicts intensifying, some terrorist forces are taking advantage of chaos in turbulent regions to grow in strength, increasing the risk of imported violent terrorism to China," he said.

Chen called for vigilance against cyberterrorism through stronger content regulation, technical prevention, and better detection and response systems to block the infiltration of violent and extremist ideologies.

He said China is a victim of cyberattacks. "Certain countries, as the world's largest 'hacker empire', have fabricated the 'China cyber threat theory' to tarnish our international image, while simultaneously using their extensive cyber arsenal to conduct systematic, platform-based attacks on our critical information infrastructure," Chen said.

He accused these countries of engaging in intrusion, data theft, tampering and destruction, saying their actions seriously threatened China's sovereignty, security, development interests, and the information security of its citizens and institutions.

"To respond, we must continue to strengthen the protection of critical information infrastructure, step up independent development of core technologies, enhance detection, tracing, and counteraction of cyberattacks, and improve risk management, layered defense, and emergency recovery," he said.

He called for stronger monitoring and early warning systems to better anticipate risks and accelerate "all-weather, all-dimensional" protection.

"Cybersecurity is a global challenge," he said. "China is a staunch defender of cybersecurity, advocating for a peaceful, secure, open, and cooperative cyberspace, and promoting the construction of a community with a shared future in cyberspace."