Chinese Officials Signal Beijing Behind Infrastructure Hacks

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Dustin Volz, Chinese Officials Signal Beijing Behind Infrastructure Hacks. Wall Street Journal, Apr 11, 2025, at page A1.
https://www.wsj.com/politics/nat ... ture-hacks-c5ab37cb

Quote:

"Chinese officials acknowledged in a secret December meeting that Beijing was behind a widespread series of alarming cyberattacks on US infrastructure

"The Chinese delegation linked years of intrusions into computer networks at U.S. ports, water utilities, airports and other targets, to increasing U.S. policy support for Taiwan

"During the half-day meeting in Geneva, Wang Lei, a top cyber official with China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, indicated that the infrastructure hacks resulted from the U.S.’s military backing of Taiwan

"In Geneva, Wang’s comments came after the US stressed that China didn't appear to understand how dangerous prepositioning in civilian critical infrastructure was, and how much the U.S. would view it as an act of war

Note:
(a) Dustin (name)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dustin_(name)
(b) WANG Lei  中华人民共和国 外交部网络和数字事务协调员 王磊
(c) "US stressed that China didn't appear to understand how dangerous prepositioning in civilian critical infrastructure was
(i) Both print and online uses the same "prepositioning," so this is not a mistake.
(ii) English dictionary:
* preposition (v; also pre-position): " to position or place in position in advance  <Artillery that was prepositioned at strategic points in the desert.>  American Heritage Dictionary"
https://www.yourdictionary.com/preposition

The merriam-webster.com does not have this word as a verb.
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WASHINGTON—Chinese officials acknowledged in a secret December meeting that Beijing was behind a widespread series of alarming cyberattacks on U.S. infrastructure, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring how hostilities between the two superpowers are continuing to escalate.

The Chinese delegation linked years of intrusions into computer networks at U.S. ports, water utilities, airports and other targets, to increasing U.S. policy support for Taiwan, the people, who declined to be named, said.  

The first-of-its-kind signal at a Geneva summit with the outgoing Biden administration startled American officials used to hearing their Chinese counterparts blame the campaign, which security researchers have dubbed Volt Typhoon, on a criminal outfit, or accuse the U.S. of having an overactive imagination.

U.S. officials went public last year with unusually dire warnings about the uncovered Volt Typhoon effort. They publicly attributed it to Beijing trying to get a foothold in U.S. computer networks so its army could quickly detonate damaging cyberattacks during a future conflict.

The Chinese official’s remarks at the December meeting were indirect and somewhat ambiguous, but most of the American delegation in the room interpreted it as a tacit admission and a warning to the U.S. about Taiwan, a former U.S. official familiar with the meeting said.

In the months since the meeting, relations between Washington and Beijing have sunk to new lows, locked in a historic trade war. Top Trump administration officials have said the Pentagon will pursue more offensive cyber strikes against China. Beijing has continued to mine its extraordinary access to U.S. telecommunications networks enabled by a separate breach, attributed to Salt Typhoon, U.S. officials and lawmakers say.

The administration also plans to dismiss hundreds of cybersecurity workers in sweeping job cuts and last week fired the director of the National Security Agency and his deputy, fanning concerns from some intelligence officials and lawmakers that the government would be weakened in defending against the attacks.  

Officials say Chinese hackers’ targeting of civilian infrastructure in recent years presents among the most troubling security threats facing the Trump administration.

In a statement, the State Department didn’t comment on the meeting but said the U.S. had made clear to Beijing it will “take actions in response to Chinese malicious cyber activity,” describing the hacking as “some of the gravest and most persistent threats to U.S. national security.” The Trump White House National Security Council declined to comment.

The Chinese embassy in Washington didn’t respond to specific questions about the meeting, but accused the U.S. of “using cybersecurity to smear and slander China” and spreading disinformation about “so-called hacking threats.”

During the half-day meeting in Geneva, Wang Lei, a top cyber official with China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, indicated that the infrastructure hacks resulted from the U.S.’s military backing of Taiwan, an island Beijing claims as its own, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the conversation.

Wang or the other Chinese officials didn’t directly state that China was responsible for the hacking, the U.S. officials said. But American officials present and others later briefed on the meeting perceived the comments as confirmation of Beijing’s role and was intended to scare the U.S. from involving itself if a conflict erupts in the Taiwan Strait.

About a dozen representatives from both countries, including senior officials from the State Department, the National Security Council, the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies, attended the high-level meeting, which hasn’t been previously reported. It was led by Nate Fick, then the ambassador-at-large for cyberspace and digital policy in the Biden administration, officials said.

In Geneva, Wang’s comments came after the U.S. stressed that China didn’t appear to understand how dangerous prepositioning in civilian critical infrastructure was, and how much the U.S. would view it as an act of war, the former U.S. official said. Additionally, the Biden administration wanted to convey doubts that China’s political and military leadership, including President Xi Jinping, were fully aware of the activities of the hackers, the official said.

Both the Biden White House and the Trump transition team were briefed about the meeting and provided detailed summaries afterward, the people said.

The Geneva summit occurred amid a cascade of revelations about the extent of China’s far-reaching and unusually aggressive Salt Typhoon cyber operations into U.S. telecommunications networks, including those belonging to AT&T and Verizon. That campaign allowed hackers working for China’s Ministry of State Security to spy on the unencrypted calls and texts of scores of top government officials and political figures, including those within the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

While that issue was also raised during the meeting in Geneva, it was largely tabled to focus on the separate hacking into civilian critical infrastructure by Volt Typhoon because it is considered an unacceptable provocation, the officials said. The telecom intrusions, while considered a historic counterintelligence failure, are viewed as more akin to traditional cyber espionage that the U.S. also conducts against adversaries.

A Chinese official would likely only acknowledge the intrusions even in a private setting if instructed to do so by the top levels of Xi’s government, said Dakota Cary, a China expert at the cybersecurity firm SentinelOne. The tacit admission is significant, he said, because it may reflect a view in Beijing that the likeliest military conflict with the U.S. would be over Taiwan and that a more direct signal about the stakes of involvement needed to be sent to the Trump administration.

“China wants U.S. officials to know that, yes, they do have this capability, and they are willing to use it,” Cary said.