Spanish Daily ABC: Spain’s Center for National Intelligence, together with other international agencies, has participated in a cybersecurity advisory issued this Wednesday. This advisory states that China’s state-sponsored actors are targeting networks globally to access sensitive data and critical infrastructure at least since 2021 and even mentioned three specific entities. What is China’s response to these accusations?

Guo Jiakun: China always opposes and fights hacking activities in accordance with the law. And China firmly opposes spreading disinformation out of political agenda. China strongly deplores and firmly opposes the U.S. bringing certain countries along to smear and vilify China under the pretext of cybersecurity. 

As is known by all, the “PRISM” program disclosed by Edward Snowden has shown that the U.S. has been proven to be the world’s largest “hacking empire” and “eavesdropping empire.” Even the countries, the U.S.’s so-called allies that participated in the farce this time, were once victims of its eavesdropping and surveillance. Yet now the U.S. is attempting to falsely accuse China of “cyber espionage.” This is typical hypocrisy of claiming itself to be the victim while it’s the other way around. 

According to reports of a Chinese cybersecurity institution, the so-called “Volt Typhoon” once hyped up by the U.S. was actually a transnational ransomware group. It was a joint move of vilification and framing against China by U.S. intelligence agencies and cybersecurity companies in order to receive more congressional budgets.

Let me point out that according to U.S. media outlets, this incident so happened because the “backdoor”, originally opened by the U.S. intelligence service to eavesdrop on its own institutions and citizens, was exploited by hackers. Such “backdoor” in the U.S.’s own telecommunication system is not only a “U.S. feature”, but also the “best practices” of “Five Eyes.” Who is engaged in massive cyber espionage? Who is the largest hacking empire? The international community knows full well the answer.

Cybersecurity is a global common challenge. China urges the U.S. to take a responsible attitude, and reflect more on what it’s doing instead of forming small groupings to smear others. China will continue to take necessary measures to safeguard its own security interests.