Comment
LEO MCKINSTRY
China has Britain under a cybersiege – so why are we so soft on them?
Scroll down to read why Britain’s high-class universities are particular favourites for the hackers
A POTENTIALLY catastrophic double standard lies at the heart of Britain’s foreign and defence policy.
On the one hand, vast amounts of time, toil and taxpayers’ money have gone into supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia, partly because of the justified belief that a victory for President Putin’s regime would be a savage blow to democratic freedom in Europe.
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On the other hand, far less concern is shown about China, another brutal tyranny that menaces liberties at home and abroad.
Where Russia is treated as both a pariah and a lethal foe, President Xi Jinping’s government is often hailed as a valuable economic partner.
Moscow is targeted with sanctions, Beijing with appeasement.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Britain led the chorus of western outrage.
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But China has been able to take over Tibet, turn Hong Kong into a police state and lock up 1.5million Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities with impunity.
What makes this contrast between robustness on Russia and feebleness on China all the more regrettable is that Xi Jinping’s autocracy represents probably an ever greater threat to Britain than Putin’s sclerotic, failing empire, as epitomised by its inability to defeat its neighbour Ukraine despite mobilising huge resources and enjoying air supremacy in the region.
Both Russia and China are effectively one-party states, but the former is increasingly dysfunctional, while the latter is a ruthless danger to our own national interests.
That grim reality was brought home yesterday by the news that international cyber hackers accessed the payroll records of 270,000 personnel in the British Armed Forces.
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The breach, which was made through a data system operated by a contractor for the Ministry of Defence, could hardly have been more serious, since it involved names, addresses and even bank details.
It is almost certain that this digital assault was the work of Chinese cyber warriors, who have gained a high degree of skill in by-passing the protective barriers on databases.
Ministry of Defence is ‘hacked by China’
Beijing has denied any involvement and has dismissed the accusation as “fabricated”.
This denial has been the cue for another burst of cowardice from the British Government, which refused to name China as the likely culprit because of Ministers’ pathetic desperation to maintain good economic relations with Xi Jinping.
Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, who has long-advocated a tough approach to China, is in despair at the Government’s unwillingness to challenge the Communist bully.
“We seem to have learnt nothing from the abject failures of 1930s appeasement,” he said recently.
The sorry truth is that continual retreat by Britain and the West will only further embolden China, which is already waging a full-scale virtual war.
Evidence can’t be ignored
Last July the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee produced a major report which stated that the Government’s response to the threat of China was “completely inadequate”, especially because Beijing’s “state intelligence apparatus — almost certainly the largest in the world with hundreds of thousands of officers — targets the UK and its interests prolifically and aggressively”.
In the wake of this publication, one Whitehall insider admitted that because of “complacency”, there was “an unwillinness to face up to what was developing”.
But the evidence cannot be ignored.
Britain is under cyber siege from China.
One initiative launched in late 2021 saw Beijing allegedly access the personal details of 40 million voters held on a database held by the Electoral Commission.
Another campaign, said to be by the hacking group APT 31, tried to get private information on politicians who were prominent critics of China, like Iain Duncan Smith.
Indeed, few areas of British life were safe.
Businesses, utilities, and communications networks have all been hit.
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Britain’s high-class universities are particular favourites for the hackers because of their cutting-edge scientific research in areas like artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, gene technology and robotic engineering.
Britain is by no means unique.
Our nearest neighbour France has proved equally vulnerable, which exposes the folly of President Macron’s decision to roll out the red carpet for a state visit this week by President Xi and his wife.
Yesterday, to coincide with this visit, French lawmakers who had been targeted by Beijing’s APT31 crew, demanded sanctions.
“We cannot allow such a campaign of cyber attacks against the elected representatives of the French people to go unanswered,” said French Senator Olivier Cadic.
'Self-delusion'
Every nation in the EU is believed to have been caught in China’s digital tentacles at some stage, while the New Zealand Government says its Parliament was targeted in 2021 by Chinese hackers.
In March the US Justice Department revealed how a 14-year-long hacking campaign by the Chinese government, aimed at officials, politicians, defence contractors and researchers, had affected millions of Americans’ online accounts, and created tens of thousands of victims.
Instead of cringing and panicking about giving offence to Beijing, the Government should face up to the truth that we are in an ideological war with China.
Xi’s communist regime, which has the largest navy and largest army in the world, and is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal, is now the biggest long-term threat to our freedom.
Computer technology is another weapon in its armoury.
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Self-delusion and wishful thinking are no answer.
Only resolution in defence of our values will meet this challenge.