SOURCE: THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
While Washington considers tough measures against China after recent reports by The New York Times and other U.S. media outlets that Chinese hackers have infiltrated their computer systems, Beijing flatly denies the allegations.
According to The New York Times, Chinese hackers broke into its computer systems on Sept. 13 last year.
Officials at the newspaper believe that the attackers wanted to access e-mail accounts of its Shanghai bureau chief, David Barboza, and other reporters. Barboza wrote a story on Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s relatives amassing wealth to the tune of $2.7 billion (250.73 billion yen), which was published in October.
The newspaper said according to security experts, hacking began in 2008 to target Western journalists in a clandestine attempt to uncover their sources and to learn of upcoming stories that might prove damaging or embarrassing to Chinese officials.
The Wall Street Journal also reported on Jan. 31 that its computers were hacked and that its reporters in Beijing were targeted, and The Washington Post reported on Feb. 2 similar attacks.
On Feb. 1, U.S. social media giant company Twitter said it was also targeted.
Although it is unclear if Chinese hackers were the culprits, Twitter said that user names, e-mail addresses and encrypted passwords belonging to 250,000 users may have been stolen.
The U.S. government is raising the alarm against cyber-attacks, which are believed to be emanating from China.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Jan. 31 that Washington needs to send a strong message to Beijing that it will not tolerate any hacking attempts.
“We have to begin making it clear to the Chinese–they’re not the only people hacking us or attempting to hack us–that the United States is going to have to take action to protect not only our government’s, but our private sector, from this kind of illegal intrusion,” she said.
The Chinese government, however, categorically denied the allegations.
“It is totally irresponsible to assert that the Chinese government and the military were involved in the attacks,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a news conference on Feb. 1.
However, The New York Times’ reporting on Wen’s relatives caused major turmoil within China as the Communist Party was preparing for its National Congress to select the nation’s top leadership in November.
Readers in China became unable to access the New York Times website around that time.
Its Chinese-language website, which was launched in Beijing in June last year with the hiring of dozens of translators, remains blocked, too.
As of the evening of Feb. 2, news websites that are blocked in China are The New York Times’ English and Chinese editions; Bloomberg’s English edition; BBC’s Chinese edition; The Asahi Shimbun’s Chinese edition; and the Chinese edition of Hong Kong’s Ming Pao and Apple Daily.
Chinese authorities are worried that the power base of the Communist Party could be undermined if the public loses confidence in top leaders after being exposed to negative reporting on them by foreign news organizations.
The new leadership, led by Xi Jinping, general secretary of the party, is in the process of consolidating its power after it was formed in November.
Beijing apparently wants to avoid a confrontation with Washington over the cyber-attacks.
Although Hong criticized The New York Times for its reporting, he has repeated a message to Washington that China is seeking to forge a partnership that both countries will benefit from through win-win cooperation.
(This article was written by Daisuke Nakai in New York, Takashi Oshima in Washington and Atsushi Okudera in Beijing.)
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
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