Skip to content

US-China Relations - 115. page

China’s State Media Praise the Military’s Strong Showing to the U.S. Defense Secretary

In the meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Chinese Military Committee Vice Chairman Fan Changlong directly expressed how upset China was with the unfriendly remarks Hagel made ahead of his visit. China’s state media Global Times published an editorial praising the military for showing strength to the U.S. Defense Secretary. The article stated: 

“China’s military was very frank in showing its differences with the U.S. Previously this was quite rare. This change is a manifestation of the Chinese military’s confidence. It is to showcase the real China in an internationally popular manner.” 
“When having a conflict with someone, China does not resort to war, but Japan often takes out the treaty of the U.S.-Japan alliance [as a weapon]. It constantly preaches that it will use force against the Chinese aircraft ‘invading’ the Diaoyu Islands. The Philippines also shows off its U.S. military protection. From time to time, the U.S. hints that it might have military involvement in the Island conflicts that Japan and the Philippines are having with China. In such instances, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army reaffirms the will and ability to defend China’s territorial sovereignty. It is not quite normal.” 
“Facing such a large country as China, the Philippines dares to play the hooligan by setting up an old warship on the beach at Second Thomas Shoal. This is by no means normal. Manila misjudged China’s tolerance. If such misjudgment spreads out to some extent, it will become a baseline for an understanding of China from the outside. China must clear up this false impression and try to achieve its goal by using language. If language is not enough, it must be coupled with action.” 

“If China’s effort to dispel such outsider’s false judgments of China implies risk, then the United States, Japan and the Philippines will need to take the risk together with China.” 

Source: Global Times, April 9, 2014 
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2014/0409/c1011-24855505.html http://opinion.huanqiu.com/editorial/2014-04/4960368.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Fan Changlong to Chuck Hagel: Your Remarks in Japan Really Upset the Chinese People

While meeting U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, China Central Military Committee Vice Chairman Fan Changlong shared his response to Secretary Hagel’s recent remarks made in Japan:

Secretary Hagel recently made some remarks. We, the Chinese people, are upset [with those remarks]. On the Diaoyu Islands issue, the U.S. has repeatedly said that the U.S. does not choose sides. It is puzzling that Mr. Secretary has publicly welcomed Japan to lift the ban on collective self-defense and has encouraged and supported Japan. It is the Philippines that invaded the South China Sea islands and reefs, but Mr. Secretary defends the Philippines and accuses China. 
Now there are people provoking us in the areas surroundings us. … The Chinese army is prepared to face all kinds of threats and challenges at any time. We will be ready at the first call to fight and [we will] win any battle. 

Source: People’s Daily, April 9, 2014 
http://world.people.com.cn/n/2014/0409/c1002-24855428.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Qiushi: The U.S. Is the Prime Culprit Endangering Internet Security

On April 4, Qiushi, the Chinese Communist Party’s flagship publication, accused the United States of being the "prime culprit" behind Internet insecurity. The following is an excerpt from Qiushi‘s article.

"Recently, another scandal broke out regarding the U.S. government’s surveillance programs. On March 22, 2014, the German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel and the New York Times disclosed, with documents provided by Edward Snowden, that the National Security Agency (NSA) conducted large-scale surveillance and espionage activities against China’s Huawei. The targets of U.S. intelligence agencies also have included China’s former national leaders, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, banks, and telecommunications companies."

"Frankly speaking, the news was not particularly shocking or unexpected. How could a country be lenient on a ‘highly concerned target’ if it would even tap into its own allies national leaders? Many analysts point out that the United States has been playing the game of a thief crying ‘stop thief.’ For a long time, the U.S. government has been accusing China of ‘organized’ hacking, stealing its government and business intelligence, and posing threats to its national security and economic interests. However, since the PRISM-gate scandal, a series of large-scale NSA domestic and foreign surveillance programs have been made public. Friends and foes have all suddenly become enlightened: the prime culprit behind the Internet insecurity is here."

"Alongside the surveillance scandal is the U.S.’s post-Cold War logic on national security. In short, the U.S. is seeking to achieve ‘absolute security’ both in the real world and in cyberspace. Starting from building the Theater Missile Defense system to today’s PRISM program, the U.S. has been pursuing security against any threat or challenge in an almost paranoid state of mind. Ever since the 9.11 incident, the U.S. has made gathering intelligence one of its top priorities. As the birthplace of Internet technology, the U.S. has a unique advantage in accessing information. Therefore, the U.S. intelligence agencies are heavily dependent on a variety of network tools to get the information that they want. As long as their so-called security is relevant, then privacy, legal restrictions, and moral principles are all left behind. … Its ideal version of network security is one in which the U.S. can monitor any object without any restriction, while any other country cannot do anything similar to the U.S. One strong piece of evidence is that, when the PRISM program was exposed, President Obama repeatedly defended the need for the program in terms of security, but never admitted that surveillance and monitoring are wrong."

Source: Qiushi, April 4, 2014
http://www.qstheory.cn/zz/wwtj/201404/t20140404_337203.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Foreign Ministry Tells U.S. to “Watch Your Step and Mind Your Words” on Hong Kong

Recently the spokesperson for the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) answered a question from a journalist regarding U.S. Vice President Biden’s meeting with two heavyweight pan-democrats from Hong Kong and the New York Times’ Editorial "Protecting Hong Kong’s Autonomy."

"Since Hong Kong SAR’s reunification 17 years ago, the system of ‘one country two systems’ has been successfully implemented. The economic, social, and democratic developments in Hong Kong have exceeded expectations. The Hong Kong people enjoy unprecedented democratic rights and freedoms, which has won widespread international acclaim."

The spokesperson continued that Hong Kong affairs are China’s internal affairs. They firmly oppose any country intervening in any way and interfering with its internal affairs. The current political reform in Hong Kong is at a sensitive time. It is hoped that the United States will "watch your steps and mind your words" and not let the issue of Hong Kong interfere with Sino-US relations.

Source: China News, April 6, 2014
http://www.chinanews.com/ga/2014/04-06/6035011.shtml

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Huanqiu: Lesson from Ukraine: China Must Strengthen Cyber War Capability to Counter the West

Huanqiu (Global Times) published an article explaining that China should learn a lesson from the Ukraine crisis and improve its ability to conduct both cyber-attacks and defense. Yang Chengjun, a senior fellow of the national security policy committee, and Jiang Zheng, an engineer at a government department, co-authored the article. 

The article stated, “In the Ukraine crisis, Internet public opinion was a factor that influenced the political landscape. The West particularly spent a lot of effort on it. This gave us a lot of warnings.” 
The article asserted that the West caused the Ukraine’s crisis, as it controlled the Internet. 
“After Ukraine suspended the preparatory work of the ‘Association Agreement’ [a treaty between the European Union (EU) and Ukraine that establishes a political association between the two parties], the U.S. and the European countries were extremely dissatisfied and then stepped up their Internet monitoring and efforts to control the Ukrainian authorities. The following is a description of some of their acts.
“1) They guided and manipulated public opinion. In the upheaval in Ukraine, the U.S. and European countries emphatically used the Internet to create and disseminate political rumors. By applying a variety of hacking techniques such as theft, interception, and attack, they made the opinions of Ukraine mainstream media websites seem to be almost one-sided; the media were full of attacks and criticism of the government. People’s discontent spread rapidly.
 
“2) They implemented Internet monitoring and information attacks; strengthened the monitoring of the websites of the Ukrainian government and military; and carried out several large-scale virus attacks. 
“3) They provided significant financial support and related Internet information to the Ukrainian opposition, thus enabling those who opposed the authorities; they were well aware of the trends and weaknesses. Eventually, this caused the complete paralysis of the official websites and laid the foundation for the overthrow of the regime.” 
The article also warned that China’s cyber security is facing a grim situation and China should step up its efforts to counter the West’s attacks. 
“With the support and connivance of Western powers, some hostile forces established dedicated websites and hired online writers to spread rumors and attack [China’s] social system.” “We can learn from the practices and experiences of developed countries and how they stepped up the development of Internet forces and the training of high-level Internet talent.　　 

“Our goal is to create strong offensive and defensive capabilities in cyber space as soon as possible. First, we should improve our capabilities in order to fight back. We must have the ability to interfere up to the point of being able to paralyze the enemy’s important network, the key nodes, and the key links. We should have the ability to erase the data and its traces after an attack. Second, we must improve our Internet defensive capability. Third, we must improve our Internet reconnaissance capabilities. Finally, we must strengthen the exercises of cyber-attacks and defense.” 

Source: Huanqiu (Global Times), March, 21, 2013 
http://mil.huanqiu.com/observation/2014-03/4920443.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Huanqiu: How Can the U.S. Have the Cheek to Blame Others When It Leads the Stealing

Shen Dingli, Vice Dean of the Institute of International Affairs, Fudan University, published an article on Huanqiu (Global Times) commenting on the U.S.’s Internet Invasion of Chinese entities as exposed by Edward Snowden. Below are some excerpts from the article: 

"Whether it involves official communications from China’s state leaders or inside information from the departments of the Chinese government, they are all China’s secrets protected by Chinese law. Even in the information age, they belong to the scope of China’s information sovereignty. There is no chance that the U.S. does not understand this point. The U.S. used the same grounds in its accusation that China hacks the U.S. information network." 
"Then, are China’s state secrets not worth protecting? If U.S. secrets are secret and if China cannot touch them, then how can the U.S. wantonly touch China’s confidential information? Obviously, with regard to Internet security issues, the United States pursues a policy of imperialism. That is, other countries have to respect the information sovereignty of the United States, while the United States does not need to respect other countries’ information frontier." 

"No country will accept such extreme arrogance and selfish behavior." "Our government has asked the U.S. to explain why the U.S. invades China’s information territory. We can expect that the United States will not explain and apologize to our country. Neither will it offer compensation for the losses that their invasion caused or guarantee that they will no longer engage in such activities in the future. If so, the United States has no grounds for blaming other countries that carry out those same activities on the United States or for expecting other countries not to retaliate against the U.S.’s Internet violations." 

"In the name of fighting terrorism, The United States wantonly invades the Information territory of other countries to steal information. What it does is completely beyond the legitimacy of counter-terrorism cooperation. … That the United States conducts such large-scale, high-level surveillance in the world only tells us that the United States has a strong desire to control the entire world. In its eyes, there is no such concept as country equality and mutual respect for sovereignty. What the U.S. wants is to maintain its long-term dominance of the world and prevent the development and rise of other countries." 

“The U.S. government should know that, in the Internet world, America’s leading technology may not be absolute; nor is it ever-lasting. If today the United States takes the lead to steal, tomorrow it may find out that it is itself that will undergo even worse suffering when others steal from the United States.” 

Source: Huanqiu, March 25, 2014 
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2014/0325/c1011-24727361.html http://mil.huanqiu.com/observation/2014-03/4928199.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Chinese Expert: The United States Must Give China an Explanation for Its Attack on Huawei

China’s State media started a fresh round of media attacks on U.S. Internet monitoring following Snowden’s recent disclosure that the U.S. National Security Agency invaded the headquarters of the Chinese company Huawei’s server and monitored the communications of Huawei’s senior management. One of the articles demanded that the U.S. give China an explanation of the [Internet] invasion and suggested that the Chinese government use its national power to counter the U.S. Internet infiltration activity. Below are some quotes from the article:

"This event is an alarming signal for China. The American [Internet] invasion of China, its monitoring capabilities, and the depth and scope of their infiltration are far beyond what we could imagine. Huawei is just the tip of the iceberg, just one of the victims of China’s information system penetrated by the United States. If even China’s powerful high-tech enterprises get hacked, how could China’s Party, the government, the military departments, communications, finance, transportation, energy, broadcasting, and other critical infrastructure prevent the penetration?" 

"The United States made various allegations to Huawei in the past. Now it is clear that it is the thief crying out to stop the thief." 

"The United States has repeatedly argued that its behavior was only to ensure national security. However, it is far beyond the scope of anti-terrorism and security. Its hypocrisy has been fully exposed. The U.S. National Security Bureau’s action against Huawei is code-named ‘attacking the Giants’ (Shotgiant). Its purpose is therefore not defensive, but offensive. It is to ‘shoot and kill’ the Chinese rapidly rising technology giant Huawei." 

"Without the backing of a state’s power … Huawei and other companies would only survive in an extremely unfair development environment. This would severely restrict China’s advance to become a nation of Internet power. " 

"The Chinese government should, through diplomatic, legal, public opinion, and other means, demand that the United States put an immediate stop to its intrusive actions into Chinese enterprises and infrastructures; the government should unite other countries and international organizations at different levels to exert pressure on the United States, prompting the United States to correct its behavior of breaching international norms." 

Source: People’s Daily, March 14, 2014 
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2014/0324/c1011-24719497.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Huanqiu: U.S. May Be Forced to “Return” to Europe

Hong Kong Tianda Institute researcher Wu Junfei wrote a commentary article that Huanqiu published about how China should make use of the strategic opportunity of the U.S.-Russian conflict over the Ukraine. Below is an excerpt from the article: 

The rapid evolution of the situation in Ukraine has given a heavy blow to Washington’s foreign policy. Since the Obama administration took office, the U.S. has changed from a strategic expansion to a strategic contraction due to the divisions among international powers and economic reality. Being unable to handle both East Asia and Europe simultaneously, the U.S. has loosened its restraint on Russia and has returned to Asia with major energy to deal with the impact of China’s rise. 
After the Crimea voted to join Russia, although the U.S. and Russia may not directly go to war, Washington will have to revive the U.S. deterrence in Europe and adopt a tough policy on Russia. It will do so in order to rebuild the balance of power and avoid the quick collapse of its superpower status. 
If the United States “returns to Europe” and is forced to institute a tough policy against Russia, China will have the opportunity to gain a brief period for diplomatic strategic opportunities. Facing the restructuring of the world strategy game, China should focus on dissolving Washington’s aggressive "returning to Asia" strategy in order to win more time for its peaceful rise. Therefore, China should, under the grand principle of neutrality, support Russia’s strategic offensive posture in Europe, forcing Washington to reduce its military presence in Asia, thus reducing the strategic pressure China faces in the western Pacific.　 

After the Ukraine crisis, China had better stay on the sidelines watching United States and Russia fight against each other. If Washington is busy with other regional conflicts, it is a rare ideal situation for the rise of China. China can actively induce conflict, thus shifting the U.S.’s military delivery and attention on China. At the same time, China may provide a helping hand to Russia for its challenge to U.S. hegemony. This is the internal logic of the quasi-alliance between China and Russia. China’s handling of the Snowden event reflected Chinese decision-makers recognition of this strategy. 

Source: Huanqiu, March 20, 2014 
http://mil.huanqiu.com/observation/2014-03/4917631.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations