The United States should stop allowing China to deny that it’s hacking U.S. institutions, a House lawmaker is asserting, and stop censoring its Internet.
“The United States has repeatedly condemned Beijing’s proven malicious cyber activity, only to be met by Beijing’s resolute denials that any such activity occurred, let alone with the state’s backing,” Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., wrote in an editorial for the Huffington Post.
“I am concerned that the United States allowed China to attest in state media that the hack on the Office of Personnel Management ‘turned out to be a criminal case rather than a state-sponsored cyberattack as the U.S. side has previously suspected,'” Salmon said.
“Our administration should remain aware of Beijing’s intentions to reinterpret reality, and continue to call out China’s malicious cyber actions as more than mere criminal activity,” he added. “State-sponsored cyberattacks such as this seriously damage our economic and national security.”
In the wide-ranging piece, Salmon also criticized Chinese President Xi Jinping for his rhetoric about cyber “sovereignty.” Xi has emphasized that concept in seeking to preclude the West from influencing the country’s tightly-controlled cyberspace.
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“China under Xi Jinping has experienced more restrictive Internet censorship, arrests and detainments of human rights activists and lawyers for exercising rights to free speech,” Salmon asserted. “President Xi even defended China’s Great Firewall, arguing that it was a means to protect order. According to China, once you have order, you can guarantee freedoms.”
It was a reference to a statement made last month by Lu Wei, the head of China’s State Internet Information Office. “Freedom is our goal. Order is our means,” Lu said. “China’s open door will never be closed … As long as [companies] do not harm China’s national interests, do not harm the interests of Chinese consumers, we welcome [them] to develop in China,” Lu said.
China’s “Great Firewall” project, overseen by Lu, prevents the country’s Internet users from using websites like Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, or YouTube. The country has been increasingly assertive in seeking to justify that censorship.
“It is a sad truth that China will continue to pursue these strategies as long as it fulfills the domestic priorities to maintain Communist Party control,” Salmon wrote. “These strategies also hamper global efforts to combat true cyber threats to national security in a cooperative manner.”
Salmon’s piece is the latest critique of the Obama administration on the issue of Chinese hacking, and the first to link the cyberattacks to China’s broader policies in cyberspace.
A September agreement reached between President Obama and President Xi stated that neither country would engage in state-backed commercial hacking. Cybersecurity experts have said it would take at least half a year to determine whether China was complying with the agreement. If it appears the country is not in compliance in the coming months, it is likely that more lawmakers will begin to build on the arguments posited by Salmon on Monday.
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“I encourage the Chinese leadership to consider whether the imbalance between maintaining domestic stability and stifling free speech and limiting free access to information will eventually impair Chinese citizens, as well as China’s true national potential,” Salmon concluded.
