A US congressional advisory panel said yesterday that Chinese spies are aggressively stealing US secrets to use in building up Beijing’s military and economic strength.
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, set up by Congress in 2000 to advise, investigate and report on US-China affairs, said US officials believe Chinese spying is “growing in scale, intensity and sophistication.”
“China is the most aggressive country conducting espionage against the United States,” the report says.
Wang Baodong (王寶東), spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, called the spying allegations “baseless, unwarranted and irresponsible.”
He called the commission’s suggestion that China’s navy is being built up to challenge the US in the Pacific a “Cold War fantasy.”
Chinese military spending, he said, is only a fraction of Washington’s.
More generally, Wang criticized the commission for recycling old, unproven allegations and for issuing an annual report “aimed at misleading the American public.”
The report said China is the origin for much of the sharply rising malicious computer attacks against the US this year.
China’s increased targeting of US government and defense computer systems, the report said, could “destroy critical infrastructure, disrupt commerce and banking systems and compromise sensitive defense and military data.”
Among the commission’s recommendations are for Congress to review the US ability to meet the “rising challenge” of Chinese spying and to fend off computer attacks.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’